When it rains it pours
by cherrishish
Summary: Lily copes with the fall out of the Snape incident and a cold. Pre-Jily Marauder era shenanigans, T for language.
1. Chapter 1

"Hey, Lily!" came an urgent voice from behind the redhead who sat at the base of a tree overlooking the Great Lake. She was spacing out, staring into nothing when her friend found her. Her whole day had been kind of weird and sluggish, she just couldn't muster the energy to focus on anything for more than five seconds.

"Could you help me with the Potions essay due on Tuesday? I just can't get a grip on Golpalott's Third Law… Lils, are you even listening?" Marlene McKinnon asked when Lily Evans didn't even seem to register the fact that her dormmate and best friend was talking to her.

"Sorry, what?" the sixth-year witch turned her head up slowly to look at her friend finally. The little crease mark between her brows told a million times more about her discomfort than words ever could. Lily was never one to whine, she was always kind and tried to be helpful to others, so this tell-tale sign alerted Marlene at once.

"Are you alright?" the blonde inquired with concern etched into her voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little headache." Lily waved her worry off, then noticed the parchment in Marlene's hand. "Want me to take a look at that for you?" she guessed correctly with a small smile playing at the corner of her lips.

"Oh, yes, please!" the other girl exhaled with relief and sunk to her knees to sit on her heels. Lily just chuckled lightly at her overexaggerated response. Like there was ever a possibility she wouldn't help Marlene with schoolwork.

Their assignment was to write a 16-inch essay on antidote making, with an argument on the validity of Golpalott's Third Law, sort of a pet peeve of Professor Slughorn.

"Hm… your paper is fine, except here…" Lily pointed to the fourth paragraph. "Your reasoning is incorrect regarding the law. The antidote for a blended poison _cannot_ simply be created by finding the antidotes to each separate poison in the blended whole and mixing them together. You need to find that single ingredient, which, when added to the blended antidotes, transforms them near-alchemically into a combined whole which will counteract the entire blended poison."

"Yes, I read that in Advanced Potion-Making but what does it _mean_? I just don't get it!" Marlene threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

"It just means that a whole product is greater than the sum of its parts." the redhead explained calmly. "When you blend different poisons they interact with each other, so the effect is usually greater than the added effect of each separately. When making the antidote you need to consider that and add that extra ingredient in the cases where this alchemical effect doesn't present itself on its own. That's why dear old Sluggy keeps pestering us with the validity of the third law, because in some cases that extra ingredient is not needed, but that's a very rare exception. For example, the Death-Cap Draught's main poison is the Death-Cap mushroom, containing twelve other poisonous elements, but its antidote also only contains thirteen ingredients. In any case, I can't really name another antidote off the top of my head that is the same."

By the time she rattled that all off she was a bit out of breath. The blonde by her side just stared at her wide-eyed.

"That's it! No more library for you for a week! Clearly, you have spent too much time in there and need a little unwinding if you can even rattle off examples of potions where this stupid Golpalott doesn't apply." Marlene chided with a shake of her head but made a note of the things she heard anyway so she could rewrite her essay in the evening.

Lily laughed out at the sight of her friend's pouty face, but it quickly turned into a little cough, which she hid in her fist. All truth be told, she hadn't spent much time in the library this year yet. That particular piece of information came from Severus. Last year before… _that_ incident… they had spent some time together getting ready for the Potions O.W.L. and due to his enthusiasm they covered a bit more ground than strictly necessary for the exam.

Marlene glanced up at her narrowly. That crease was still stubbornly sitting there between her bright green eyes – that is her usually bright green eyes, which now were a little dull and unfocused.

"Are you sure you are fine?" she asked again with worry.

"Yeah, just tired, I think I'm going to go up for a nap," Lily assured her as she scrambled to her feet and swung her school bag over her shoulder.

It was a beautiful early October Friday afternoon, one which they usually spent by the lake celebrating the end of classes for the week. The teachers hadn't awfully loaded them with homework this early in the term, so no late night studies or essay writing yet. Marlene was at a loss for ideas regarding the reason why Lily seemed so exhausted. She quickly got to her feet and caught up with her.

Lily gave her a little smile as the blonde hooked her arm into hers for the walk up to the castle. She suddenly turned her head away, bobbing a little into her elbow with a " _h'kishoo_ ". Marlene nearly didn't realise that Lily just sneezed, it was so soft, feminine, and almost inaudible.

"Bless you, Lils," she responded, glancing to her side at her friend.

"I'm fine, Marlene," Lily murmured pre-emptively.

Speak of the devil, on their way up she noticed Snape sitting by himself at the base of the castle wall, engrossed in schoolwork probably, judging from the books and parchments scattered around him. Lily made haste of her steps before he had a chance to notice her.

* * *

Once in the Gryffindor common room Lily excused herself from her friend and headed straight for the stairs leading up to the girls' dormitories, not even looking around to see who was down there, thus missing the dark-haired boy heading their way.

"What's with Evans?" a male voice from behind made Marlene nearly jump out of her skin.

"Ruddy freaking bloody hell, Potter!" the blonde clutched at her heart as she spun around. "Must you insist on giving me a heart attack?!"

James chuckled at her reaction, leaning against the back of one of the many red sofas around the room.

"You know me, Marlene. They don't call me heartbreaker for nothing," he gave her a mischievous wink.

She just rolled her eyes at her fellow Chaser, who had been appointed as the Captain of the Quidditch team this year. Although they had been on the team together for the past three years, it was customary for the Captain to hold tryouts at the beginning of each year for all positions except his own to ensure the best possible team. Which was incidentally tomorrow. Marlene wasn't that worried about her spot.

"Aye Captain, just watch out because if your head gets any bigger, you won't fit in through the portrait hole," she gabbed with good-natured humour.

"Seriously, is Lily alright? She seemed out of sorts," the raven-haired boy asked again with worry etched in his voice.

"She just saw Snape on the grounds," Marlene sighed. It was hard not to notice the way she tensed up and practically ran for the entrance of the castle to avoid having to face him.

"What did sodding Snivellus do to her again? I'm going to kill him!" James seethed, already turning to make his way toward the portrait hole to find the git and show him a piece of his mind, or fist, either worked.

"Easy there cowboy!" the girl grabbed him by the arm to stop him. "He didn't do anything, probably didn't even notice us as we came back from the Lake."

Potter visibly deflated, running a hand through his unruly hair in a nervous habit. Guilt has been eating away at him ever since that afternoon during last terms O.W.L.s. As per usual, the Marauders had been having their way with Snape. Correction – James had been hanging him by the ankle, while Sirius had cheered him on loudly, Peter had just snickered in the background and Remus had been shaking his head in disbelief, trying very hard to justify the whole proceedings with his inner conscience and prefect duties. That was when Lily came to his defence, only to be called a mudblood by her supposed friend.

She had cut all ties with the boy whom she had known since she was nine without a second thought, but it was obvious that the whole thing was harder on her than she would have wanted people to know. James felt partially responsible for causing her pain, but he didn't regret Snivellus's true nature finally surfacing. He was bad news all around with the company he was keeping.

"Good. I don't want her around him," he gritted his teeth.

"Well, tough luck, you are not the master of her!" Marlene spat back only to backpedalled a second later. "But incidentally I have to agree with you on that one," she gave a worried glance over to the place where Lily vanished toward their dorm room.

"Is she… still mad at me?" Potter asked hesitantly. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know if that were the case.

All summer he had a sinking feeling that he had officially blown any and all chances he might or might not had with Lily. Not that she ever visibly gave him any chance. James Potter was smitten with Lily Evans ever since the first time he had laid eyes on her on the Hogwarts Express in their first year. His infatuation manifested in pranks and generally making a fool himself in front of her until their third year. From then on, the pool of possibly humiliating moments widened with him asking her out at basically every opportunity he got, but she had always turned him down.

Until the end of last year at least she spoke with him, even if only to chew him out for his latest escapades or to turn him down with a witty comeback. Ever since then she wouldn't even look at him. He really missed those times. Her angry banter was like a siren's song to his ears.

"Just… give her time. She will come back around," the blonde offered. Lily was way too kind to truly stay mad for long, but that wasn't to say that she didn't need time to heal and forgive.

* * *

"Ugh…" Lily woke up the next morning groggily despite having slept for like twelve hours straight.

"Lily? Are you coming with? I have to leave soon for breakfast if I want to make it to tryouts," Marlene called from the bathroom just as the other girl was sitting up in her bed.

"Go on ahead, I'll meet you downstairs," the redhead replied while trying to rub the remnants of sleep out of her eyes.

"Are you sure?" she said looking at her watch. "I can spare another five minutes if you want me to wait for you."

"Yeah, it's alright," Lily waved her off with a smile. Marlene hesitated for another second trying to assess her friend then shrugged with a sigh, leaving the room with her broom in hand.

As soon as the blonde was gone, Lily flopped back against her pillow with a big exhale that led to a coughing fit. There was no way around it, she felt like utter misery, stuffed up and achy. Getting sick was the last thing she needed. She promised Marlene to cheer her on from the stands at the tryouts. That started at ten, and it was 9 AM now. _Just have to push through the morning then I can call it quits at lunchtime by coming back to the dorm and sleep the rest of the afternoon away._ That sounded like a plan, so she started getting ready, even if painfully slowly.

* * *

Marlene anxiously glanced at the doors of the Great Hall every other second. It was half-past nine, and Lily was still nowhere to be seen.

"Earth to McKinnon…" Potter waved a hand in front of her eyes, effectively pulling her attention back to the conversation that was going on around the breakfast table.

"Sorry, what?" the blonde turned back to the couple of Gryffindor boys and girls who had still remained of the previous year's team.

"I said, I have to leave to set up. Could you come help?" James raised an eyebrow at her suggestively.

"Er, sure," she nodded getting out of her seat and joined their Quidditch Captain.

"Is Lily coming?" he tried to ask nonchalantly, knowing full-well that the redhead diligently came to every single tryout and match to support her friend and the team. He always secretly (or not so secretly in the presence of his three best friends) liked to imagine that she came to watch him play too. Marlene, of course, saw right through him.

"Yeah, she was just running a little late in the morning," the blonde stated pointedly. _At least I hope she is coming…_ she thought to herself. Honestly Lily didn't look too well earlier.

* * *

The sixth-year prefect ended up not eating breakfast – she wasn't too hungry anyway – and headed straight for the pitch, taking her usual place in the Gryffindor stands. She waved at Marlene when she saw the Chaser glance up to indicate that she had made it. The way the blonde's face lit up when she noticed her was worth all the effort it took Lily right now to sit there and not fall over.

The redhead was glad for her foresight in bringing her scarf despite it only being October because the weather was quite windy, especially this high up. Of course, it did nothing for the involuntary shiver that ran down her spine.

"Mind if I join you?" Remus came up beside her.

"No, go ahead," she gave him a little smile as he took his seat on the bench.

Remus was her favourite of the Marauders. Certainly, he was the most level-headed of the bunch. They had spent a fair amount of time together since last year because of their prefect duties. She always wondered how exactly he had fallen in with the rest of them given that he was compassionate, intelligent, peaceful and kind, nothing like the arrogant, boastful, loud and obnoxious pair James and Sirius made. And Peter… well, he worshipped those two. At least they were kind enough to include him in the group, instead of shunning him like they did with most people out of their house whom they thought unworthy of their presence.

Lily sniffled a little, pulling her robes closer around herself as she turned her attention back on the field where the tryouts were just about to start.

 _"_ _heh'kshee"_ the sneeze crept up on her without warning, only barely giving her time to bring her hands up to cover, then realising that she had managed to forget all her tissues in the dorms.

"Bless," Lupin remarked absentmindedly, only to notice a second later that his fellow prefect was in bit of a pinch, so he offered her his handkerchief. "Here."

"Thanks." Lily took it gratefully, giving her nose a long hard blow. Leave it to Remus to always have a freshly laundered and pressed hankie on him.

"You know, Madam Pomfrey has these excellent things called Pepper-up," he quipped with a warm knowing smile playing at the corner of his lips.

"I know," Evans scowled a bit. Although very effective, she hated that potion, the way her ears steamed afterwards. To tell the truth, even being muggleborn didn't really explain her aversion, since she shied away from pills too, only taking them when absolutely necessary, usually leaning on the good old honey-lemon tea and bed rest until she got better. Which was exactly her plan after this was over. "But I'm fine."

Remus just sighed, having long learned how stubborn the redheaded witch could be. Just then Lily shivered again.

"Come here," the werewolf put his arm over the girl's shoulder drawing her closer to provide warmth. They had enough familiarity between them for this not to mean anything more than it had to be.

By the end of the second hour of sitting there, Lily was most definitely running a slight fever and didn't protest when Remus offered to walk her back to the castle after the Chasers had been selected and Marlene's position had been secured, blaming her shivery state on the weather. She would just have to find out later from her blonde friend who else made it on the team because she had no energy left to sit the rest of the tryouts through, not to mention that they would probably have an impromptu practice afterwards too.

When they reached the first-floor landing, the sandy-haired boy turned toward the Hospital Wing only to be stopped by Lily.

"I just need to sleep it off, honestly. Let's just go to the Gryffindor Tower, okay?" she pleaded.

"Fine, but for the record, I heavily object," Remus sighed in resignation for like the umpteenth time in the span of the last thirty minutes.

"Duly noted," Lily nodded putting her arm back in Remus's with a smile of mirth to be escorted to the Tower, to which her prefect partner just shook his head in amusement.


	2. Chapter 2

Remus was sitting in the common room, working on his Transfiguration essay, when the obnoxiously loud entourage of the newly formed Quidditch team waltzed in through the portrait hole sometime around 1 PM. The three girls that made it onto the team laughed out at something James had said and soon after everyone dispersed – either back out to the hall or up to the dorms, and some lingered in the common room since they spotted a friend.

Potter walked up to the desk Remus was working at and leaned over the back of his chair.

"Hey, Moony," he greeted as he looked over the werewolf's shoulder to see what he was doing. "You missed the tryouts, Sirius was kind of bummed."

"I was there, right beside Lily, until the end of the Chaser selection," Lupin replied matter-of-factly without glancing up or breaking concentration from his schoolwork.

"Exactly! You missed the Beaters. Sirius made it on, of course," the Quidditch Captain assured his friend as he plopped down on the couch beside him.

"Of course," the sandy-haired boy muttered with a roll of his eyes. He could not imagine a world where James would not pick his best friend for anything.

"So Lily was really down there? I looked but didn't see either of you," in his mildly deluded mind, the redhead was down there just so that she could watch him fly. Pretty darn nice fantasies.

"She was cold, so I walked her back after she made sure that Marlene got selected as one of the Chasers," Remus explained as he rolled up and put away his finished essay.

"Ah," James hummed in understanding. "Always the gentleman, Moony. Just don't let me catch you sweeping Evans off her feet before me."

Remus cast a highly unamused look at his fellow Marauder. Like they hadn't gone over this like a million times already. Even if he was attracted to Lily that way – which he wasn't – there was no way he was ever going to go out with her or anyone else for that matter. Not with his furry little problem.

"I'm just pulling your leg, mate. I know you guys are close because of prefect duties," Prongs patted the werewolf a little bit too hard on the back.

"Do I hear some pranking is in order? Who are we getting this time?" Sirius made his sudden appearance.

"Where is Peter?" James asked looking around for the final member of the Marauders.

"Beats me, probs up in the room or something," Padfoot shrugged. "So here's my idea: let's enchant all the toilet seats to refuse to let anyone sit on them except the ones in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!"

"We already did something similar in third year," Prongs shot him down with a dismissive wave.

"Also I thought we finally grew out of senselessly pranking everyone…" Moony muttered under his breath. They have been in school for more than a month now and somehow managed to stay out of trouble. Remus helplessly hoped that was going to last, but it seemed his prayers were unanswered.

* * *

"Lils?" Marlene peeked into the dorm room with a quiet inquiry, half expecting to find Lily asleep, but she was sitting on her bed, seemingly doing homework, although her blanket was thrown over her shoulders.

"Hey! Nice flying out there!" the redhead commented before turning her attention back to the pile of books and parchments in front of her.

"You came back early…" she probed unsubtly. Marlene was almost a 100% sure that Lily was getting sick just too proud to admit it.

"Yeah, it was kind of chilly out, and I remembered I had home… _heh_ …" her breath hitched. "Homework to do before tonight's prefect… _h'tchi…_ meeting," Lily managed to finish without further interruptions.

"Don't forget to mention the fact that you've caught the sniffles," the blonde chuckled at the pre-sneeze face her friend was making.

"No, I… _h'kikti_... didn't… _h'kichoo_ ," the redhead frowned at that utterly poor display of denial.

"Just admit it and go to the Hospital Wing for some Pepper-up. You will feel like instantly better," Marlene pleaded with her stubborn friend.

"I hate taking medicine!" the prefect half-whined.

"I know, sweetie, and I bet with muggle medicine it's warranted too because they are a load of rubbish. But…" she was cut off mid-sentence.

"I don't want steam coming out of my ears. And I feel _fine,_ so there is no need to bother Madam Pomfrey," Lily declared with finality that was only overshadowed by a slight sniffle at the end.

"Alright, alright…" Marlene backtracked. "How about some tea? It's lunchtime anyway… for like another hour," she added glancing at the clock on the wall.

"I suppose a cup of tea wouldn't hurt," the stubborn redhead relented after blowing her nose and followed her friend out of their dorm room.

* * *

What Marlene hadn't anticipated was that tea was all Lily intended to get. The chicken breast sandwich lay forgotten and barely touched in front of the green-eyed witch while she sort of spaced out, sipping the hot beverage.

Lily was deep in thought. That near run-in with Snape the day before had rattled her. She hadn't seen the greasy-haired boy outside of Potions since _that_ incident, even though he lived down the street from her childhood home in Cokeworth. Lily had been purposefully avoiding Severus, never giving him any chance to speak to her even in class. In fact, she hadn't so much as glanced his way, effectively pretending he didn't exist. So when, after many months, she first properly looked at her former childhood friend, a massive wave of sadness hit her at the loss that she had kept putting off with anger.

Speaking of anger, there was one other person whom she really wanted to be furious with, and that was James Potter. But for some reason, even though there hadn't been a moment in their previous years when he wasn't pestering her with either silly pranks or date proposals since the beginning of this term the cheeky Marauder had kept a respectful distance. The change in attitude was so sudden and unexpected that Lily wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Her increasingly worse cold wasn't helping with her emotional state either, and the ceiling above them reflected her gloomy mood. Potter still on her mind, Lily glanced around, but she could only find Peter from the Marauders at the table, which was odd since the two girls walked right passed them outside of the Great Hall, the other three boys being too engrossed in their hushed conversation to notice them. Just as the redhead narrowed her eyes in suspicion, knowing the sixth-year Gryffindors all too well, ice cold rain started pouring from above, drenching everyone who was attending lunch to the bone, even the teacher's table.

Lily instantly felt chilled and shivery, having just enough presence of mind to run out of the Hall amidst the noise of everyone crying out from the cold contact, and apply a drying and warming charm. Only to find two of the Marauders snickering to themselves in the corner, while Remus was two steps from them, not enjoying himself quite as much, but there was still a hint of a smirk dancing around at the corner of his lips. Evidently, she had spoken too soon about the reformed behaviour of the Quidditch Captain.

"Have you lost your sodding… _eh,_ " before the redhead could further voice her opinions though, her nose had other plans, hitching her breath. The quickly applied charms seemed to have done nothing to prevent further damage to her already poor health the soaked through clothes have caused, so she turned to sneeze into her elbow. _"heh'tshi, hehhttshoo! heh…h'kshee!... hih-tchiew! het-schew! huh-chiew!... chiew! chiew!... eh…heh… heh-sschoo!"_

Remus at least had the decency to look ashamed, since he was well aware of her blooming head cold even if the others weren't. Not that Lily was the intended target of that prank, they honestly hadn't seen her go in, and her fellow prefect had been positive that the girl was resting up in the dorms in her condition. He was clearly wrong. As the fit kept going on, leaving Lily utterly winded, James started to become increasingly worried.

"Evans? Are you alright?" the bespectacled boy inquired as he started to approach Lily since it seemed she was seconds away from passing out, but she put up her index finger to halt him. Obviously, she wasn't finished yet. A wave of students was fleeing from the onslaught of the indoors rainstorm, so she tried to stifle the sneezes to avoid drawing attention to herself, with varying success.

 _"_ _Hih-mppt! Heh-gxnt! Hih-nxgt-chiew! Huh-gnsch-iiew!"_

Somewhere during that Marlene had found her way out of the Hall too, still drenched.

"Lily?" the blonde caught the other girl's elbow as she started swaying.

"I'b fide…" the sixth-year prefect mumbled thickly with congestion once she could breathe without setting herself off again, leaning against the wall for support.

"Evans, you should go up to the Hospital Wing," James suggested in a soothing tone of voice that you approached hurt or frightened animals with. "I could take you."

Lily's eyes glinted frighteningly.

"You have already dode edough," the stuffed up quality of her voice deducted nothing from the contempt it held. For a moment the redheaded witch pondered on retaliating with a nice hex (given that her wand was still in her hand, not having had the time or mental capacity to put it away during her fit) that could have had the pranksters running for their money but thought better of it after a good nose blow. "Ten points from Gryffindor and you are to clean up the mess in the Great Hall without wands as detention," Lily huffed, defaulting to her prefect duties, just in time for McGonagall to come out, fully dry as if the prank had never happened. It seemed they had already stopped the downpour of rain inside.

"Excellent suggestion, Ms Evans," their Head of House agreed, giving a condemning look to the boys caught red-handed, arriving just in time to hear the sixth year prefect's verdict.

Without another word, the redhead turned away from the stunned faces of the Marauders towards the grand staircase to make her way back to the Tower before the strict Transfiguration teacher could comment on her red nose or pale complexion, with Marlene close on her heels.

"I'm deeply disappointed in you Mr Lupin," the girls heard McGonagall's voice ring through the hall. "Now, get on with your assigned detention."

* * *

Marlene hadn't said a word since they got back to their dorm room but kept stealing worried glances at her redheaded roommate. The afternoon dragged on painfully slowly for Lily. No matter how many warming spells she put on herself she just couldn't get rid of the shakes or concentrate on her schoolwork. Mentally she had cursed Potter to hell and back for the stunt the Marauders had pulled at lunch.

At three o'clock the green-eyed witch decided to give into her body's screaming need for a nap until the prefect's meeting at seven. Unfortunately, her rest was anything but peaceful.

Her alarm clock woke her at half past six, but her mind was so muddled by her fever that it left her disoriented and it took Lily a full five minutes to remember why she had set it in the first place. Vaguely she wondered if she ought to heed the suggestion everyone kept repeating to her the whole day and just go visit Madam Pomfrey. _After the meeting…_ she decided, at last, only to fall asleep again.

* * *

Remus hurried along the corridors in longs strides. Cleaning up the Great Hall took longer than anticipated. Maybe they should have checked the intensity of the rain spell before casting it because they literally managed to flood the place. Not mention that James was utterly useless with his mind constantly on Lily and her well-being. If he hadn't asked like a thousand times whether the redhead was alright then never…

Now the werewolf had to hurry to make it to the prefect's meeting in the Head Boy and Girl's office.

"Sorry, I'm late…" he began to apologise only for his concern to be waved off.

"No, you are just on time… Actually, Evans still isn't here," Trevor Milligan, a seventh-year Hufflepuff prefect commented. "Do you have any clue where she might be?"

Lily being late to anything was utterly unheard of, so of course, the Gryffindor prefect's guilt and worry renewed from earlier, but he hoped this meant that she finally had enough sense to seek out Madam Pomfrey. Before he could voice his suspicions, the door suddenly burst open again and a very dishevelled looking redhead hurried in.

"Sorry, I lost track of time," the witch apologised in a raspy voice.

The others didn't pay much attention to her and got on with the agenda points for that day's meeting, but Remus kept glancing at her. She looked worse than in the morning, red-nosed and flushed high up in her cheeks, indicating that she was feverish, but naturally, she tried very hard to keep herself upright in her chair and alert, stifling a sneeze here and there. You could visibly see her façade slump when the meeting was finally over an hour later, and everyone filed out of the room getting on with their business.

 _"_ _huh-gnsch! heh-nxxt!"_ Lily sneezed again very tiredly.

"Bless. You really shouldn't stifle them like that. You'll hurt yourself," the werewolf remarked humourlessly.

"I dow," she breathed in a little whiny voice. Lily _never_ whined, at least not in front of anyone but her closest friends. He couldn't help but feel responsible for her condition.

"Are you ready to admit defeat yet?" Remus looked at her expectantly, wishing that common sense finally reached his fellow prefect.

"I was pladdigg od goigg to the Hospital Wigg right after the beetigg, but I'b dot sure I cad get up frob here," obviously, Lily was so stuffed up by now from stifling that even blowing her nose did little to relieve the congestion.

That much was evident to Lupin too. Even from where he stood he could feel the heat radiating off of her. He would bet five galleons if he had them that she was feeling dizzy.

"Come, I'll carry you," he offered, but the witch waved him off in protest.

"No! Just give be a bidute…" the redhead tried to take a deep breath to clear her head but just ended up coughing instead.

In all honesty, although Remus was unaware of this as far as she could tell, Lily knew of his condition, and she didn't want to get him sick by the close contact with only two days before the next full moon. His immune system was usually shot around this time. Now that she thought about it a bit more rationally, she _should have_ just gone straight to Madam Pomfrey instead of the meeting. The fit and the panic of her sudden guilt left her almost hyperventilating.

"Lily, breathe," he crouched down beside her, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"No… I dod't wadt to get you sick…" she looked up at him, trying to hold onto her resolve to keep the boy away but it was actually very comforting that he cared.

"Oh, for the love of Merlin!" Remus sighed and picked the weak girl up effortlessly before she could say another word of protest.

With no energy left to struggle Lily relented and just rested her throbbing head against his chest. She almost fell asleep with the lull of his steps when a very familiar voice rang through the hall that should have been right around the corner from the Hospital Wing given the distance they had come.

"What did you do to her?" Snape demanded from the Marauder accusingly.

Lily was instantly alert but kept her eyes scrunched closed, hiding her face deeper in Remus's chest. _No, no, no… he is the last person I want to see right now._ There might have been a hint of worry towards her in that question, but she tried as hard as she could to ignore that and the unwelcome pang of sadness that she felt for her lost friend. She wondered for a second just what exactly he had thought had happened if he assumed that Remus had something to do with the state she was in. Even if Sev knew about his monthly turning, surely he was aware that it was not the full moon yet…

"Nothing. Just a bout of the flu, I'm taking her to Madam Pomfrey now," the werewolf replied cordially, not rising to the verbal challenge and walked right past the sixth-year Slytherin without another word.

"He is gone," Remus told her quietly a few moments later.

"Thanks," she whispered, looking up at him gratefully.

Once they arrived, he pressed the door handle with his elbow and pushed the door open with his back, barely jostling the girl in his arms. As soon as he stepped into the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey came bustling to see who had come.

"Oh my, place her on the cot over there," the healer pointed in the right direction. "I'll be right with you, sweetie," she added once Lily was comfortably lying in bed then proceeded to usher Remus out.

The redhead could just about make out the hushed conversation they were having at the entrance about her condition and the Madam's concern over Remus's exposure to her illness at such an unfortunate time. She glanced at their direction just in time to see the werewolf shrug off the concern. Surely if someone didn't have the knowledge Lily had, the exchange would have seemed innocent and inconsequential, but the prefect couldn't help but wonder if she had just made the Marauder's next few days a lot worse than it was strictly necessary.

The healer left him with instructions to come back as soon as he felt any symptoms and made her way to the bed she was occupying.

"I hear you did a number on yourself, Ms Evans. You should have come down in the morning the moment you felt ill," Poppy chided in a motherly fashion as she did her diagnostic charms.

Lily let herself be taken care of without a word, drank the prescribed potions and fell into a fitful sleep again.


	3. Chapter 3

"Remus!" the frantic voice of Marlene greeted the prefect the moment he set foot in the common room again. "Have you seen Lily? I went to the bathroom and then she just vanished and had been gone for like an hour and a half. I'm worried she passed out in some hallway."

"Calm down, Marls," he smiled reassuringly. "I took her to Madam Pomfrey's after the prefect meeting."

"Oh, thank Merlin!" the blonde sighed in relief. "I've been telling her all day to just go, but she utterly refused. After the stunt you guys pulled at lunch, she had been out of it most of the afternoon."

"Yeah, sorry about that. If I had known she was down there, I would have made more of an effort to stop those two idiots," Moony pointed towards the table where James and Sirius were seemingly plotting something again while Peter busied himself catering to their every need.

"No hard feelings, no one can rein them in anyway…" Marlene rolled her eyes in understanding then left her classmate be to seek out Alice, who was a year above them, for help with her essay since Lily was unavailable.

The werewolf debated whether he should just go up to their dorm room or join his fellow Marauders at their table in doing whatever they were doing. He wasn't sure if he could keep his vexation out of his voice with the approaching full moon taxing his self-control.

The choice was soon taken from him because James spotted him standing there all by himself and waved him over fervently. With an almost imperceptible shake of his head, Remus walked over to them.

"Moony, you've got to see this!" he enthused right after he added his friend with a flick of his wand to their quieting charms. That explained why he hadn't just called him over – no one outside their bubble heard anything they said. Smelled suspiciously like plotting and mischief. Although the werewolf couldn't imagine why they didn't just do this up in their room if they wanted to be so secretive about it.

"Prongs, I'm _so_ not in the mood right now," Remus pre-emptively protested to whatever mad idea the crazy-duo had gotten into their minds.

"What bug crawled up your arse, Moony?" Sirius jabbed jokingly only to back off with his hands put up when Remus gave him a murderous look.

"Padfoot, don't aggravate the werewolf two days before the full moon," James scolded with a smirk as he pushed the book he wanted Moony to take a look at towards him.

"What's this?" the sandy-haired boy quirked his brow questioningly at what seemed like an advanced charms books. In itself, not an incriminating item, so it would have been more suspicious if the Marauders were not seen out in public. The perfect disguise of schoolwork.

"The answer to all our prayers," Potter theatrically proclaimed. Lupin rolled his eyes but began reading the page it was open on.

"The Homonculus charm?" he asked incredulously. A charm that, when cast onto a map, would enable its possessor to track the movements of every person in the mapped area, through labelled dots that moved around on the parchment. The prefect had some ideas where this was going.

"We are going to make a map of Hogwarts, Moony!" Peter stated the obvious, barely able to contain his excitement, bouncing from foot to foot.

"Just imagine, not only we would have a map of the whole castle, but also we could see where everyone was at all times. The ultimate pranking tool! Not to mention it would be easier to sneak out to you at the Shrieking Shack without getting caught. The three of us can't exactly fit under the Cloak at the same time anymore," James elaborated on the practical uses if they could pull this off.

"And you, my Moody Moony, we need your awesome drawing skills to make the base of it happen!" Sirius got up from his place to get behind Remus and placed his hands on his shoulders as if he was the proud father congratulating his son on a great honour.

"You guys are mental if you think the four of us can pull off the charm on the order of magnitude required to cover the whole school…" the werewolf rubbed at his eyes tiredly.

"We already tried it on the girl's dormitories. It worked like a charm!" Wormtail exclaimed. The others looked at him in confusion. _Duh… of course it worked like a charm! It is one!_ "What? It's a muggle saying. My mother's muggleborn, she says it all the time."

"Anyway…" Padfoot tried to steer the conversation back on topic. "Look, you can see Izzy and the other fifth years are in their room, Marlene and Alice are up in the sixth year dorm…"

"Very fascinating, but I'm not in the business of spying on girls, so if you will excuse me, I had a long day, I want to go to sleep," Remus complained.

"Hm, weird. Lily is not there. Did she not come back from prefect meeting with you?" James saw on the map then looked around the common room again in case he just hadn't noticed her. Highly unlikely.

"No, I had to literally carry her to the Hospital Wing because she got a fever of at least 39 degrees from the prank you pulled on the Great Hall." Before he could finish properly, Potter was already on his feet, throwing his school bag over his shoulder that contained his invisibility cloak and swishing past them towards the portrait hole. There was no use telling him that it was past curfew.

"Are _you_ going to be alright?" Sirius asked pensively after a few moments. He couldn't blame Evans, she had no way of knowing what the consequences of hanging out with Moony pre-full moon with that cold of hers were.

"Let's not jump to conclusions, we aren't sure I'm going to get sick yet, and even if I do, I'll live. It wouldn't be the first time," the werewolf pointedly shot his concern down but smiled at the caring side of the usually flippant Marauder.

"In any case, let's get you to bed. Wormtail, could please clean up the 'evidence' here?" he winked before starting to drag Remus away towards the stairs leading up to the boys' dorms, who was more amused than annoyed with the manhandling at this point. But that would change very soon.

* * *

Lily awoke with a start after only a few hours of sleep, drenched in sweat and disoriented. She was sure that she had been dreaming of something, but couldn't quite recall it anymore. The potions hadn't helped much, the redhead still felt shivery. At least, she had the luxury of being the only person currently in the infirmary, and no one else had to witness the state she was in.

The sixth-year girl turned on her side and tried to bring the covers closer around herself for warmth when suddenly she heard a noise and sat up startled. Her head swam with dizziness as she scanned the room but saw no one. Heart pounding heavily in her chest, she tried to settle back in when she noticed a small note on her bedside table.

 ** _"_** ** _Sorry about the rain, Evans. I hope you will feel better soon. – JP"_**

 _When was Potter here?_ Lily wondered. _At least he didn't ask me out again…_

She quickly turned the note over just to make sure there was nothing more written on it and sighed in relief, causing herself cough in the process. Truth be told, Lily thought it was kind of him to wish her well, without the added fanfare that was usually James Potter when it came to Lily Evans.

 _Geez, I must really be delirious with fever if I'm thinking that anything James Potter did was nice!_ The redhead suppressed a laugh, but she couldn't do anything about the smirk that crept up on her face as she closed her eyes to try and sleep again.

Lily heard the noise again, sounding suspiciously like footsteps.

"Who's… _heh… hih… h'kktheew_ … Who's there?... _h'eektshsh,_ " she tried to sound firm and authoritative despite her nose's interruptions. At least the potions worked enough to elevate her congestion somewhat, so she didn't sound so nasally, but her voice was still kind of rough.

No answer came. The prefect could only hope that it was merely Peeves messing around, although she couldn't imagine why the poltergeist would make noises resembling footsteps. She grabbed her wand from the nightstand and shrugged her robes over her nightgown, still sitting at the edge of her bed, whispering disillusionment cancelling charms on the room to see if anyone was hidden. Nothing happened. The redhead desperately wanted to believe she was just imagining things, her feverish mind playing tricks on her but she still had that prickly feeling of being watched.

"Show yourself, whoever you are, I'm not joking!" Lily now shakily stood up slipping into her pantofles. She was fully aware that she looked just about as threatening as a first-year in her shivery mess. Still nothing. Her legs protested, so she sunk back on the bed in defeat. She felt silly. With another look at the room, the prefect decided to get back under the covers, but not before applying a drying and warming spell on both herself and the bedding. The continual use of magic in her state left her drained and utterly exhausted so despite her paranoia she fell right asleep as her head hit the pillow.

Once James heard Lily's little snoring start back again, he slipped out of the infirmary as quietly as he could.

* * *

"For the love of all magic, stop fussing, or I'll seriously bite you!" Remus burst out on their way down to breakfast. The dog animagus hadn't stopped bustling around the werewolf ever since the possibility of turning while ill became a real concern. Those ones were always hard on everyone but especially Lupin.

" _You_ can't Siriusly bite me, I am Sirius!" Padfoot remarked with the straightest face he could muster.

"That pun has been old ever since first year. Probably even before that," the prefect sighed in frustration.

"So is this just the usual PMS or the 'I'm not feeling well' grumpiness?" Black tried again to coax the information regarding his health out of the sandy-haired boy. He didn't _look_ sick, but a scratchy throat was all they needed to make tomorrow's transformation miserable.

"Would you stop referring to these days as if I were a girl on her menstruation?" Remus forcefully whispered, not wanting anyone to overhear this particular conversation. It was embarrassing on way too many levels.

"Why? I think it fits perfectly. Once a month, for a few days you turn very irritable, you usually bleed, though gotta admit not through your fanny since you don't have one, and you are craving chocolate… I'm calling it the pre-moon sickness!" Sirius declared in a mischievously cheerful tone.

"Keep your voice down, you pillock!" the werewolf hissed, looking around quickly if anyone might have heard, but it seemed they were out of earshot for anyone to eavesdrop.

"Wait for me!" James yelled from behind them, running to catch up.

"Ah, Mr Prongs has graced us with his conscious presence. You know, you sleeptalk about Evans, right?" Pads turned to tease his best friend, much to Lupin's relief since at least for this period of time the black-haired Marauder's attention was averted from him.

"Yeah, you have mentioned… once…" Potter began their usual mantra.

"Or twice…" Peter chimed in.

"Or like a million times!" Remus mumbled the end half-heartedly, which unfortunately caught James's attention and he quickly placed the back of his hand against the sandy-haired boy's forehead.

"He doesn't seem feverish," he gave his assessment to Sirius.

"I know, but I'm keeping an eye on him anyway," Black replied.

"Oi, I'm standing right here!" the werewolf cried out indignantly.

"Peter, see if you can procure or transfigure a teddy bear Moony can tear apart while transformed and bring it to the shack, his wolf seems to like those when he gets sick. And some blankets, we will need those in the morning after," Prongs gave the instruction to their ever-helpful member of the Marauders as if he was giving orders to his troops.

"I can't believe this…" Lupin muttered under his breath coupled with a bunch of profanities as he stalked off from the group to breakfast. He hated being babied this much, especially when there was nothing to warrant it. Yet.

* * *

"Hey, Lils, how are you doing?" Marlene came down to see the redhead around lunch time when Madam Pomfrey finally declared that she could have visitors.

"Better, although it seems like a Pepper-up resistant bug, so I'm lucky if I get out of here tomorrow," Lily smiled tiredly, resting against the pillows and headboard.

"I'll take notes for you, don't worry," the blonde assured her.

"Thanks… _ah'eechi…_ Have you seen Remus today, is he fine?" Evans probed, although she dared to believe the werewolf had enough sense in him to come directly to the infirmary if he felt ill.

"Why shouldn't he be?" her friend looked puzzled by the question.

"I just feel guilty because I probably infected him, if not at the Quidditch tryouts then at the prefect meeting for sure," Lily propped her head in her palm with a contrite expression.

"Oh, yeah, he told me he had to carry your arse down here," she laughed. "No, I saw him at breakfast, he looked okay, although it seemed the boys were having a row about something. Remus kinda looked scary with the glares he was giving them."

This seemed odd… it wasn't that the Marauders never had disagreements, but those usually revolved around the execution of some prank and had the werewolf disapproving or frustrated with the others, but not genuinely mad. Though it was the day before the full moon, so he was just probably on edge more than usual.

"I hope it's nothing serious…" the redhead expressed her concern.

"Oh, I believe Sirius had everything to do with it!" Marlene laughed out loud which only intensified with the face Lily was giving her for that comment.

"Not you too!" she groaned and coughed at the cringe-worthy pun Sirius had been playing on ever since first year.

"I sat with him in the morning, sorry, kind of rubbed off on me," the blonde blushed a deep red.

"Marlene Annabelle McKinnon, do spill!" Lily's interest was piqued by the reaction, and she sat up straighter on the bed to hear the story.

"He asked me to Hogsmeade for the next weekend," the Chaser admitted bashfully.

"You know he is a player right? What about the Quidditch team?" All the whole house could talk about was their new Beater at yesterday's lunch table.

"We agreed to keep it professional if it doesn't work out," she shrugged nonchalantly. Nearly all girls in their year or below them had a crush on Sirius at one point or another, but Marlene had never explicitly expressed interest in him before.

"Speaking of players both on and off the field. Potter was here sometime last night," Lily reached for the note on the nightstand and handed it to her friend, then blew her nose while the blonde read it.

"No date proposal? That's new… and very…" Marlene was looking for the right word. "Subdued…"

"I'm glad that he finally understood. Maybe… just _maybe_ … this means we can have a cordial relationship for the remaining two school years," she coughed again because talking too much was irritating her throat which had Madam Pomfrey coming out of her office and shooing Marlene out for exciting her patient too much.

* * *

Remus was sitting on his bed in the evening, trying to finish all his schoolwork that they had been assigned so far before he would be out of commission for at least two days if not more. To tell the truth, he was starting to run really low on steam. Maybe his friends' worry wasn't unfounded. He realised he actually _was_ moodier than usual today. And he was starting to get a headache, although that could have been from the concentration.

"Okay, all done," the werewolf declared finally, noticing just a hint of scratchiness in his throat. "Can you give this one to McGonagall, and this to Flitwick tomorrow for me?" he got up to walk up to James, handing the parchments to him. Usually, he could make it through the morning classes on the full moon day, but it probably would be best if he didn't try his luck this time.

"Sure, mate," Potter took them, placing them in his satchel.

"And the Potions essay is on my nightstand for Tuesday," Remus gave him further instructions.

"We know the drill, don't worry," Prongs tried to reassure him. Even if they skipped classes, the appropriate essays always ended up in the teachers' piles by one of them running down under the cloak and slipping it in when no one was looking.

"Yeah, Moony, leave everything to us!" Sirius patted him on the back then steered him towards his four-poster. "You just get comfortable and sleep."

He would have protested to the manhandling, but it actually sounded like an excellent idea. One more night in his own bed before the inevitable.


	4. Chapter 4

James snuck out of the Gryffindor Tower again after everyone was asleep, hoping to see Lily doing better than the night before. He felt terrible for making her sicker than she needed to be. Hopefully, he could be stealthier this time. It was a real close call yesterday, that woman had instincts way better than he would have thought. The only thing saving him was her general state of health that prevented her from investigating further. The Quidditch Captain could just imagine her chewing him out if she found out about the stalkery, not to mention the Cloak of Invisibility.

He was also worrying about Remus coming down with a lurgy, but that could wait until the next day when they would ultimately find out if all their fussing was for nothing or not. He had another one close to his heart to feel concerned about right now.

Potter edged into the Hospital Wing as quietly as he could. Lily was sleeping peacefully, her dark red hair sprawled out around her on the pillow. She definitely looked better. Kind of endearing too with her slightly red nose and light snore. She still couldn't quite breathe through her congestion, but she didn't seem that feverish anymore.

Feeling adequately calmed about her health, James bent down to plant a kiss on the beautiful girl's hair before taking his leave. What he was not prepared for was Lily stirring from her sleep, her eyes flying wide open as soon as she realised that something was amiss. He quickly pulled back away from her, but the damage was already done. _So much for stealth._

It took every ounce of self-control of the redhead not to scream at the sensation of something invisible brushing against her.

"Whoever you are. Explanation. _Now._ Before I hex you into tomorrow," she whispered dangerously, not wanting to strain her voice which was still a bit hoarse, grabbing her wand from the nightstand.

"Just came to see how you were. Sorry for waking you," the boy smiled guiltily as he pulled his hood back.

"And you couldn't do that during visiting hours without scaring the living daylight out me? And what's up with _that_?" Lily's voice was dripping with sarcasm as she pointed to his seemingly missing body.

"It's an… invisibility cloak," he admitted reluctantly, still only a disembodied head floating in mid-air. It was a disconcerting sight.

"I gathered that much," she huffed, rubbing her nose which started to itch again irritatingly, it had been going on and off all day until she finally fell asleep. Then after a second, something else occurred to her making her glare at Potter even more. "You were… _hh_ … in here yester… _hih_ … _h'kshsh_ … yesterday too when I woke up, weren't you?" she finished before blowing her nose.

"Uhm… Maybe?" James scratched the back of his head, not wanting to confess to it outright.

The redhead scrambled out of bed to swat at him in anger. "You had me thinking I was going bonkers, you prat!"

She only made it two steps before a wave of dizziness washed over her. She reached to catch herself on the next cot, but an invisible force scooped her up and returned her to her bed.

"Bloody hell, Evans. Are you off your trolley? You're still sick, don't strain yourself," the Quidditch Captain chided, finally pulling the cloak entirely off and setting it beside himself as he sat down at the end of Lily's bed.

"Says the cheeky bastard sneaking in to watch ill girls sleep," the girl rolled her eyes resentfully.

"Touché. Although, for your information, I wouldn't be doing this for just _any_ girl," James winked at her playfully.

"I feel _so_ flattered, not to mention creeped out. Tell me, exactly why shouldn't I call Madam Pomfrey out right this second?" Evans crossed her arms, her wand still in hand, now pointed at Potter.

"Because I would just put my cloak back on and disappear into the night and no one would ever believe you, blaming it on your fever?" he shrugged, trying very hard not smirk at her, his lips twitching.

"Merlin, you are _such_ a _twat_. And here I was thinking that it was so nice of you to leave me a get well note," the redhead hissed, the air catching in her throat and making cough again.

"You thought it was nice?" James mellowed instantly, looking up at her in dreamy hopefulness.

"Not anymore," Lily took the glass from her bedside table, sipping on the water while glaring flatly at the Marauder.

"Anyway… I just wanted to make sure I hadn't done any lasting damage to your health. I'll be leaving now," Potter got back up, deflated by the hostility, running a hand nervously through his hair.

"Good," she huffed, deliberately not looking at him.

"Fine. I really am going."

"Fantastic!"

Without another word James pulled his cloak back on himself, disappearing from sight. A few moments later the door of the infirmary opened to a slither then closed back again. Lily slumped back into her pillows with a great sigh, staring at the ceiling for a while. Sleep didn't come so easily that night, her mind going through all the impossible scenarios of the last five years that suddenly got explained by a freaking invisibility cloak.

* * *

As soon as Remus woke up in the morning, he knew he was thoroughly screwed. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool, his throat felt raw, and he was just generally achy all over, worse than usual on these days. A pained moan escaped his lips unbidden, which summoned Sirius to his bedside at once.

The others had gone down to breakfast already, given the late hour, leaving the dog animagus in charge until they got back. The prefect sleeping in longer on these particular days wasn't uncommon, but they didn't want to leave him all alone, just in case. That kind of forethought was most welcome at the moment.

"Geez, Moony, you look like shit," Padfoot commented when he caught sight of the sandy-haired boy, unable to help himself.

"I know. I feel like it," Remus whispered in a rough voice, instantly sending himself into a coughing fit.

"We should get you down to the Hospital Wing," Sirius busied himself with getting some clothes and stuff ready for his friend so he wouldn't have to lift a finger.

"I… can't," Lupin looked panicked with a sudden realisation.

"I'll carry you, don't worry," Black waved him off, mistaking the statement for embarrassment at his weakness.

"No, I mean, Lily is there…" Remus rubbed at his eyes tiredly, his speech muffled by the pillow he hid his face in. "I don't know when she will be let out… and it would be awfully obvious when I leave for the Shrieking Shack before sundown."

"Madam Pomfrey will make something up. That you had to be taken to St. Mungo's or something," the dark-haired boy insisted.

"Lily is not stupid. A cold is not something you get sent there for," the werewolf gave him a flat look. It was just too risky in his opinion to give the bright witch something that would get her thinking and connecting the dots.

"But…" Sirius tried to protest, knowing full well that the healer will have their heads if they didn't immediately get Remus down to her the second he showed signs of illness on a full moon day.

It was a very tentative pact made between the Marauders and the matron, ever since it slipped out that the boys knew of Remus's monthly excursions. They were to look out for him and report anything out of the ordinary regarding his condition to Madam Pomfrey, and of course, keep quiet about the secret. Naturally, no one was aware that they _joined_ him for the trip at every full moon ever since the beginning of last year when they figured out their animagus forms.

"And the potions… those would be really suspicious too," – the sandy-haired boy croaked again.

"Oh yeah, most of them have wolfsbane in them. Crap," Black realised. Madam Pomfrey wouldn't be giving him most of the potions that she would to other patients with a cold, but some completely different stuff. "She could just say you are allergic to something in the normal ones."

"The only common ingredient between those is aconite. Have you heard of anyone besides werewolves being allergic to it?" Remus peered up at him with a glare.

"Uhm… no," Padfoot scratched his head, trying to come up with another argument to get Moony to cave. It was a tough cookie to crack given that he was the smartest among the four of them. "Doesn't she just usually put you up in a private room?"

"Like _that_ wouldn't be awfully suspicious," the werewolf rolled his eyes but regretted it instantly because it made his sinus headache worse. He groaned in frustration, pulling his blanket closer around himself.

"What is this really about? You have never made such a fuss about other students in the infirmary," Sirius sat down beside him on the bed placing a comforting hand on his back, checking for fever with the other. Mild one for now, but it was bound to get worse, he knew.

"Those other students are not brilliant muggleborn witches that I have daily contact with and who research every odd magical thing they encounter in the library," he had nothing against this habit of hers. Were the roles reversed he would have done the same to make sure that nothing flew over his head out of ignorance for the things that were common knowledge to those who grew up in the wizarding community.

"Right. Going by that logic, she already knows," Padfoot meant it as a joke and laughed out, but the horrified expression on Moony's face made him shut up instantly.

"Just tell Madam Pomfrey to come, she will understand. There isn't really a difference whether I'm in bed here or there," Remus said finally curling up further on himself for warmth.

"Okay, I'll be right back, you stay put," Sirius started for the door in a hurry only to rush back in to rummage through Moony's drawers, finding his handkerchiefs and placing them within his reach.

"Like I have a choice…" Remus mumbled underneath the blankets.

* * *

Lily was sitting in her bed, reading a book Marlene brought her a few minutes earlier to divert her attention from Potter and his shenanigans, not to mention the classes she would be missing that day. She felt mostly fine, her fever was finally gone, the majority of the other symptoms cleared up too, but Madam Pomfrey insisted on her staying at least until dinner time when if all went according to plan she could join her friends in the Great Hall.

Suddenly the doors burst open, and Sirius Black came barrelling in, his robes askew on his shoulders. He skidded to a halt in front of the redhead's cot when he noticed her bewildered stare.

"Cheers, Evans! Feeling better? Good," he gave her the thumbs up. "I'd love to chat, but gotta chivvy along," and continued to run off, almost slipping on the floor with his sudden start.

"Hey! Is Remus okay?" Lily inquired after him, but it seemed the Gryffindor Beater paid no attention to her as he knocked on Madam Pomfrey's office door, asking to have a private word with her.

"Totally bonkers, the whole lot of them…" she muttered to herself once he was out of sight.

Soon he reemerged with Madam Pomfrey close on his heels with a tray of potions in her hand. _Just what in the world was that all about?_

* * *

Remus was sitting upright, with a knitted sweater thrown over his shoulder – probably James's or Peter's doing who had already returned from breakfast, worry etching their features. The sandy-haired boy's face was in a glorious pre-sneeze expression, his breath hitching, and handkerchief in hand before his mouth in anticipation when Black made it back with the matron.

"Alright, everyone out! Don't you have classes to attend?" Madam Pomfrey shooed every out with a swift motion right when the itch finally reached its peak for Remus.

 _"_ _Heh'kSHUU…eh…heh'chew… Hkkx'SCHEWW!"_ he sneezed trice, already wet and loud, before blowing his nose.

"Bless you, dear," the matron said, then tutted in disapproval. "Why didn't you come down last night?" she was confident that if it was this bad now, he surely felt the beginnings of it in the evening before.

"I honestly felt fine then," he dabbed his runny nose with the handkerchief before giving Madam Pomfrey a sheepish and tired smile.

"Let's see what we have got here," Poppy busied herself with the diagnostic charms as she eased Remus back into the warmth of his bed.

Soon enough his nose started to bother him again, and he reached for a fresh hankie from his nightstand, just in time to muffle the next few sneezes in it.

" _Huh'kshew…h'kgnsh… heh…eh…h'KXssh…hi'kshuu…h'Kshew…hiii'KSHEW!"_ by the time he was done, from the spray and nose blowing it was utterly soiled too.

The werewolf shivered involuntarily as an achy chill ran up his spine. Madam Pomfrey cast a warming spell on his bed.

"Bless you. You seem to have really caught Ms Evans's nasty cold," she patted him lightly on his arm comfortingly. "Now, I can't give you most of the decongestants I gave her, or Pepper-up, although that didn't work anyway, but I have one that could help with the general achiness a bit. I usually give it to you in smaller doses anyway after transformations. Plus a honey-based potion that should help with your throat," Poppy explained in a motherly fashion.

"Thagk you," Remus mumbled gratefully after downing the concoctions deemed safe for him, the stuffiness finally reaching a point where his consonants started to mesh together.

"Are you sure you don't want to come down to the Hospital Wing? I could keep a closer eye on you," the healer inquired.

"Mm. Lily…" the sandy-haired boy protested drowsily, the potions starting to kick in. "I dod't wadt Lily to fidd out."

"Alright, get some sleep, I will check back on you in a few hours," Madam Pomfrey relented without further explanation – Mr Black had already informed her about Remus's reasoning – quietly drawing the curtains of his bed closed to let him rest.

* * *

"Madam Pomfrey, is Remus okay? I didn't make him terribly sick, did I?" Lily pounced on the healer with her questions as soon as she stepped foot back in the infirmary.

"Just a bad cold, Ms Evans, nothing to worry about," Poppy tried to reassure her, but her faltering smile told the redhead there _was_ something really wrong.

"He is avoiding me, isn't he? That's why he asked you to see him in the Tower instead of coming down to the Hospital Wing," the redhead asked in a small voice, suddenly finding her hands very interesting. The whole situation had Madam Pomfrey torn, the two prefects were obviously close friends, but she couldn't truly comfort one without revealing the other's secret which wasn't hers to share.

"Nothing of the sort, but at the moment it was best to leave him in the warmth of his own bed, rather than having to trot through the cold, drafty castle with his fever," that wasn't necessarily a lie, but it still lacked the conviction to dissipate Lily's unease. She wanted to know what was really going on. As soon as she was let out of there, she was going to try and research the consequences of werewolf turning under less than healthy circumstances, although she doubted she would find anything useful in the library. She had to ask someone who knew about the situation but would cave easily.

* * *

That someone turned out to be Peter who she cornered right before dinner.

"How's Remus doing?" the redhead caught up with him just at the first-floor landing as she came out of the infirmary, luckily alone. If she had to guess, James and Sirius were unwilling to leave Lupin's side.

"Could be better, but it's just a cold," Pettigrew shrugged, trying to look nonchalant.

"I know it's not just a cold," Lily gave him a meaningful look.

"I mean it _could_ be the flu…" Wormtail started feeling uneasy by the whole conversation.

"Look… I _know_ … okay?" she stopped him, placing her hand on his shoulders to get his attention, taking a glance around if anyone was listening. "I just want to know how much danger I put him in by getting him sick on _this particular_ day."

"I don't know what you mean…" Peter looked around shiftily wanting badly out of the situation.

"I know what you guys keep referring to as his 'furry little problem'," Lily tried again.

"He will probably be fine, but he could get a lot sicker out in the cold, now leave me alone, I never said anything!" Wormtail rattled that all off so quickly the prefect almost couldn't make out what he said, then he ran off in panic towards the Great Hall.

"Are you in the business of extorting information out of my friends now?" the voice of James had Lily almost jump out of her skin in fright.

"Potter, that's the third time in two days," the redhead spun around glaringly.

"Since when do you know?" he had to ask even if the situation wasn't ideal, but there wouldn't really be a better opportunity to follow up, and they had to know if Remus's secret was safe.

"End of third year… ever since we had to write that essay for DADA on… you know," she sighed. Sometimes she wondered if those who grew up in the wizarding world were devoid of any reasoning skills because no one else seemed to have connected the dots.

"Oh…" You could visibly see him relax. If she hadn't revealed anything for so long, she wouldn't start now. And it seemed she was really just concerned for her friend.

"Just… could you tell Remus to get well and that I'm sorry? I'm not sure he wants to talk to me anymore," the redhead pleaded.

"What? No! Nothing of the sort, he was just afraid that you would figure it out if he went down to the Hospital Wing, but that is a moot point now," Potter laughed. "Look, I really have to go, but don't worry, Remus will be okay," he trotted off towards the castle entrance, with a bag over his shoulder which she just now realised he had and that sort of left Lily wondering again.

* * *

 _Just a little bit earlier…_

"Okay, Madam Pomfrey is meeting us by the Whomping Willow in twenty minutes, I think we should get ready," James whispered over the sleeping form of Remus. His condition hadn't improved at all during the day, it only got worse if anything, despite the potions. At least he was able to sleep through most of it.

Sirius had scooped their ill friend up in his arms with blankets and everything, the invisibility cloak thrown over them (it just about covered the two of them). You could sort of forget how thin and frail the werewolf was on good days given his above-average strength because of his condition, but now his feather-light weight had Padfoot's heart constricting. Meanwhile, James carried a bag with the stuff they intended to sneak in for him after the healer left him in the Shrieking Shack. Peter was sent on ahead to make sure they wouldn't run into trouble on their route.

The werewolf stirred somewhere around the fifth-floor landing.

"Where…?" Remus mumbled groggily.

"Shh… it's okay, we are cloaked. I've got you," Sirius whispered to him. A moment later he could feel the sandy-haired boy tense in his arms.

"Pads… I… _heh_ … have… to… _hih_ … sneeze…" there was really no good way about this, his hands were trapped under the blanket, and even if they weren't, he didn't have a handkerchief on him at the moment. " _h'ksh…hih'kshew_ " he sneezed into the covers and his friend's chest. Remus was too tired to feel embarrassed about that, and Sirius seriously couldn't care less about such matters as long as they could get Moony down safely.

Fortunately, no one was around except James to hear it, but he could cover for them by faking a sneeze of his own if needed.

They made it to the first-floor landing without another incident, where they ran into Lily grilling Peter. They stayed behind around the corner hidden to see it unfold. When Peter ran off, James stepped ahead and occupied the redhead while Sirius quickly made it around them, trying to get as much distance between them as possible since he could hear Remus's breath hitching again.

" _h'gnxt_ " he managed to stifle quietly without drawing attention.

"Since when do you know?" they heard James ask just then behind them.

"End of third year…" was all they caught from Lily's response once they reached the entrance door waiting for James to let them out. Remus looked up with tired, resigned eyes at Sirius.

"Told you so," he whispered stifling a laugh. They really should have taken a bet on that.

Moments later Prongs was with them again. Once outside they switched the cloak over to him, and they made their way towards the Whomping Willow.

Madam Pomfrey was already there and so was Peter in the form of a rat at the base of the tree, out of the matron's sight. The healer levitated Remus into the tunnel, thanking them for taking good care of him. Sirius joined James under the cloak once they were gone. Now they just had to wait to join the werewolf again in animagus form. This was going to be a long night.


	5. Chapter 5

Lily walked into the Great Hall, still puzzled over the oddities that James Potter seemed to have an endless supply of, each of them seemingly meant to keep a girl up all night wondering.

When she glanced toward the Gryffindor table, she paused for a second. Peter was nowhere to be seen even though she was sure that she had seen him come here (none of the Marauders were there for that matter, but Remus was in their room resting as far as she knew, and she had just seen Potter leave the castle). _Maybe he was wherever James had gone?_

The redhead spotted Marlene chatting with Alice about something and went up to them to sit beside her friend.

"Oh look who jumped the brig finally!" the blonde quipped while turning to hug her.

"Har, har, very funny," Lily stuck her tongue out at her playfully, but her mood quickly sank back into its contemplative state.

Now that she thought about it… what was the arrangement exactly for Remus's transformations? Surely not the dorms. The Forbidden Forest? What were those idiots doing outside then? Trying to get themselves killed? (She would have bet almost anything that Sirius was right there with them too.) It had to be something safer, more secluded or there would have been stricter security against students leaving the castle at night, especially on _these_ nights.

"Lily?" Marlene waved her hand in front of the prefect's face. "Maybe Madam Pomfrey should have kept you for another night, you are spacing out."

"I'm fine. Just a lot on my mind," she sighed as she forked some food on her plate.

"Is it James?" the blonde giggled conspiratorially.

"Yes… I mean no… not in the way you think. Remus got sick. I was just wondering what they were doing," the green-eyed witch threw her an exasperated look. Ever since Lily had shown her that note, Marlene had been teasing her about finally falling for the Quidditch Captain.

"Yeah, the moron quartet was suspiciously absent all day from classes," the Gryffindor Chaser frowned as she scanned the table confirming that it was still the case and for a second Lily panicked that she said too much. "But if Remus is sick I'm sure they just don't want to leave his side. They always seem to be sewn together by the hips."

"You've got that one right." _Did this include the full moons too? But how?_

* * *

"I'll be back for you in the morning," Madam Pomfrey assured Remus, staying with the boy until the last possible minutes before the moon rose.

These escorts were deemed unnecessary in the last few years because the healer was certain that Remus was responsible enough to go to the Shack on his own before sundown and come straight to her in the morning after the transformation. In this instance, given that she had no idea that he had three very eager boys helping him who were able to stay the whole night, it was only natural that she thought that he wouldn't be able to make it back on his own.

"Mmhm," Remus mumbled in agreement, not wanting to speak, curled up in a foetal position under the worn old blanket they had stashed in the Shack, the healer taking back his proper one to his dorm room.

Despite the matron's every effort, his fever had spiked, and his body was in unbearable pain from his joints loosening in preparation for the transition.

Not even five minutes after she had left, all three of his friends were by his side, Sirius rubbing circles comfortingly into his back until he could in human form. James had hidden his invisibility cloak in the other room to prevent any damage to it, along with the bag they had brought, its contents now scattered on the bed by the sick boy. Peter stayed in his rat form running around between their legs nervously.

The moonshine started to filter in through the grimy window, James and Sirius quickly taking to their stag and black dog forms too. Remus's panting became harder, even more laboured, he tried gritting his teeth to keep himself from crying out in pain, which would have been utterly unconducive to his throat.

His body contorted in ways that was torturous even to watch. Padfoot whimpered sympathetically, pacing by the bed.

Soon the change was complete, and the wolf howled in anguish with little regard to how his human form would have wanted to preserve his vocal cords. He cantered off the bed agitatedly making a round in the room, scratching at the floor before collapsing back on a rug, hiding his nose behind his paws with a whiny yelp. The big black dog trotted to him, sniffing around to see if his presence was tolerated before curling beside him to provide some warmth. Wormtail soon joined him, climbing on Moony's back, while Prongs stood guard from his other side, not wanting his antlers to be in the way.

" _m'pfksh_ " came a muffled sound from the werewolf's mouth and nostrils, oddly sounding like a sneeze. The creature shook his head trying to get rid of the irritation, jostling the rat on his back in the process. Peter decided to flank him from James's side instead, burrowing himself in Remus's fur.

They kept vigil all night. Moony alternated between lying there sneezy and drowsy although still wide awake, and pacing agitatedly around the room, not finding a comfortable enough spot for himself, every position seemed wrong to the wolf after a short while. The teddy bear they had brought lay victim to one of these outbursts on the floor now, but as they had predicted it did calm the werewolf down a bit.

On a typical full moon, they would have gone out to the Forbidden Forest to explore, but apparently, it wasn't a distraction that the usually stir crazy wolf craved at the moment. At least, he wasn't biting or scratching himself bloody like he did in those days when the other Marauders weren't able to join him yet.

In the pre-dawn hours, Moony gave a pathetic look to the dog beside him with a little whimper and nuzzled his face in its fur. That is how morning found him. As soon as he was back in human form, James transformed back too, getting the blankets on top of Remus before cleaning up the evidence of them being there with him. Padfoot stayed where he was providing comfort to him, which he seemed to appreciate even through his coughing fits that now racked his frail body.

Soon, they could hear Madam Pomfrey's footsteps from the tunnel, so Potter ushered the other two still in animagus form under the cloak with him and their bag. Remus moaned a bit in pain at the jostling, the loss of contact and warmth from his friend leaving his side.

"My dear, you haven't moved an inch all night it seems," the healer commented a minute later as she entered the room. As it so happened, they managed to have Remus end up in the exact same position the matron had left him in the evening before, although that wasn't intentional at all.

She quickly dressed Remus in a pair of pyjamas she had brought with herself, then bundled the barely conscious boy in his blanket again and levitated him back towards the exit.

Once they were out of earshot, James let out a breath he didn't realise he had been holding. Padfoot barked up at him, nudging his leg with his nose.

"Yeah, I know, me too," he sighed. They were all worried and practically dead on their feet.

They made their way under the guise of the cloak through the tunnel to the castle grounds giving Madam Pomfrey a few minutes head start. Peter disabled the Whomping Willow with the right notch as they emerged. It being barely past 5 AM they weren't in any real danger of running into anyone but kept themselves hidden anyway all the way to the corridor leading to the Fat Lady's portrait. Given that she had only seen James and Peter leave the Tower and not return, Sirius stayed invisible now in human form, while the other two took the grunt of the Lady's disapproving tirade.

"Snargaluff," Potter tiredly spoke the password in a brief pause provided by the Fat Lady and the portrait swung open, letting them in.

Their plans of getting a few hours of shut-eye were thwarted when they spotted Lily sleeping in one of the armchairs in the common room. James tried to backtrack and get both himself and Peter under the cloak, even if they couldn't be fully covered, hoping that the redhead wouldn't be paying attention to their feet, but before he could do that she stirred. _Damn that she is such a light sleeper!_

"I'm assuming Black is somewhere around here under the cloak right?" Evans muttered groggily, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

"How does she know about this?" Sirius hissed pulling the now utterly meaningless disguise off of himself.

"I'll tell you later," the Quidditch Captain told him, not wanting to rehash the embarrassing moment in front of the other person involved.

"Where were you?" she asked half accusingly, half worriedly.

"Can we not do this right now?" Potter stifled a yawn, while the other two were already inching towards each other to sneak back under the cloak and escape.

"Just tell me that you weren't putting yourself in danger and that Remus made it through the night okay," Lily implored looking between the three of them. James just quirked his brow at the not entirely wrong conclusion she had made of the night. "I don't know how you are able to do it without risking death or infection, but I'm assuming you were with him."

"That is a secret for us to know and for you not to worry yourself over," he winked with a mischievous boyish smirk. "But yes, Remus is as fine as he could be under the circumstances."

The prefect debated whether she should push the subject further, maybe use her authority, but an even better idea, and incidentally punishment, occurred to her.

"Alright. I expect to see the lot of you in classes. No slacking off!" she relented, signalling them that she will be watching and that there would be consequences if they didn't comply as she climbed the stairs to the girls' dorms.

"Prongs, don't you feel that we have just been blackmailed by miss-uptight?" Sirius glanced warily at his partner in crime.

"I definitely got that vibe, Padfoot," James agreed rather pensively. That is until his mood shifted faster than the speed of light to his fanciful delusions. "That's my girl! I think I have fallen in love even more!"

"Ugh, not this again!" Black groaned tiredly, dragging his arse up to their room to escape his blabbering.

* * *

Meanwhile, Remus was situated in the Hospital Wing. Given that thankfully there weren't any obvious external injuries on him and all of his symptoms now could be explained by the cold or flu, he was let to rest in the main patient room.

He was exhausted beyond belief but for some reason couldn't exactly drift off, hovering on the edge of consciousness. The world around him was a delirious blur. The lights were way too bright, his body felt like led, hot and cold at the same. He struggled for breath, wondering briefly if this was what drowning felt like.

Periodically gentle arms propped him up to take a sip of water, down some potions, followed by soothing words that didn't exactly make it to the part of his brain responsible for processing auditory input, but the tone of the murmur relaxed him a bit anyway.

His feverish brain fretted briefly over the fact that he was making an even bigger nuisance out of himself than usual, wondering when his friends would finally realise what a burden he and his monthly condition was and ditch him.

Sometime later – _minutes? hours? days? who knew…_ – a female voice other than Madam Pomfrey's became distinct enough for him to make out against the ambient noises of the room and the outside world filtering in through the windows.

"I won't disturb him, I promise." _Was that Lily?_

"Ms Evans, I'm sorry, but Remus specifically asked not to let you visit." _The matron's voice declared firmly but with a hint of sorrow?_

"Oh. Okay. Of course. I understand," the redhead sighed wistfully just as Moony managed to open his eyes enough to see her bow her head dejectedly. Given the lights of the room, it must have been late afternoon.

Sluggishly his mind tried to make sense of that situation. _Why didn't I want Lily here? Something about finding out about something, right? But she knew already, didn't she?_ How he knew she knew, he couldn't recall just then, but the explanation felt unimportant at that moment. _She seemed so sad. I don't want her to feel sad. And why did she think it was natural that I didn't want to see her? Did somebody say something to her?_

"It's fine," he croaked, but it didn't seem to reach the women, so he tried again after clearing his voice. "Madam Pomfrey…" that caught her attention, and she came rushing to his side, Lily staying behind by the door not sure if she should leave. "It's fine, I don't mind Lily."

"Mr Lupin, you should be resting, you are not up for visitors yet," the healer rearranged the blanket around him.

"I want to see her," Remus tried to sound stronger than he actually felt at the moment, but he honestly didn't have any objections to the girl's company.

"Are you sure? Earlier you said…" she trailed off, not wanting to repeat his exact words given the sensitive nature of them.

"I know. But it's fine," he insisted, after a few blinks finally his vision properly focusing on the matron by his bed.

"Alright," Poppy left him to fetch his fellow prefect from the doorway. "Five minutes, Ms Evans, don't excite him too much."

"I promise I won't. Thank you," she seemed to have perked up a bit by the turn of events, but clearly worry was still etching her features.

The redhead sat down carefully on the end of his bed.

"Hey," Lily greeted with a tentative smile, unsure if patting him on his leg lightly would be comforting or painful, so she kept her hands to herself.

"Hey," Moony smiled back through his haze. "Sorry about that."

"No, it's okay, I understand,"she cast her eyes down again.

"I was just… afraid…" the werewolf tried to explain, barely speaking louder than a whisper. "That if you found out… you would look differently at me. It seems you have already known for a long time, so it doesn't matter anymore."

"How? You know what, never mind, I bet that darn cloak is the answer to almost anything with you boys," Evans rolled her eyes in mock exasperation.

"As embarrassing as it is, Sirius was carrying me bridal style under the cloak to… well, to where I do my monthly transformations. We passed right by James when he cornered you about interrogating Peter," Remus admitted. It was nice that he could share some things with the girl who – if James got his way – might become sort like a sister-in-law to him. Even with that, there was no need revealing the exact location.

"Thanks for the visual," she giggled a bit. It brought a wry smile to Remus's face too, having to actually suppress a chuckle of his own that quickly led into a coughing fit and he had to turn on his side to keep from choking up on it.

Lily frowned in concern and got up to help him to a sitting position, letting him lean against her. He didn't seem to mind her touch, so she gently rubbed soothing circles into his back until the fit subsided. It really was a wonder that Madam Pomfrey hadn't come rushing to kick her out yet.

There was a sheen of sweat on his forehead, a flush high up in his cheeks and she noticed that there was a water basin with a washcloth prepared, currently not charmed to self-wrung and apply itself. Lily decided to just go about it in the muggle way and placed the cool material against Lupin's forehead after he had laid back down.

"Hm. That feels nice," he moaned appreciatively.

"Glad to be of service," the redhead patted his hand as she took the chair by his bed this time.

Five minutes came and went, but Madam Pomfrey never emerged from her office to usher the green-eyed girl out. They didn't talk more, but Lily was content with just sitting there in silence, watching his chest rise and fall or looking out the window contemplatively.

Just when she thought that Remus finally dozed off again, his breath began to hitch. Lily quickly handed him some tissues.

" _Heh… eh… h'kxsh… huh'kshuu… hi'KSHEW"_ the powerful sneezes racked through him as he turned away from the redhead to the side, the force of them making him practically curl up on himself.

"Ugh. Sorry about that," he apologised after giving his nose a honking blow.

"Don't mention it," she smiled affectionately.

"I'm actually kind of surprised that the guys hadn't tried to break down the Hospital Wing doors yet to see me," he glanced toward the entrance half expecting it to happen any second now. Or at least someone sneaking in with the invisibility cloak on.

"Oh, they are here, right outside the door ever since the end of classes. Madam Pomfrey absolutely refused to let them 'wreak havoc' in her ward until your fever went down," Lily mused good-humouredly.

"They went to classes?" Remus raised his brow incredulously at that revelation. They usually skipped classes on the day after the full moon, the morning ones to catch up on sleep, the afternoon ones to sneak in here to keep him company.

"I may have had something to do with that," the redhead scratched her chin with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Right in that moment, Moony knew exactly why James had been pining after the girl for so long. She may not have looked like it at first glance, but they were like peas in a pod. That actually quite explained their regular and violent clash of personalities.

"Lily Evans, you are wicked, you know that, right?" he coughed into his fist to mask his amusement.

"Oh, I almost forgot, I brought you some chocolate," Lily pulled the wrapped source of endorphins out of her robe and showed him the brand then placed it on his nightstand for later consumption when his appetite returned.

"How did you know this was my favourite?" Moony beamed happily glancing between the gift and its bearer.

"Pfft. Come on. I have seen you nibbling on bars of these in like a dozen meetings," the prefect waved him off, but she was really glad that she got at least this one thing right. The sixth-year boy already looked much better than just ten minutes earlier.

"Psst, Moony! We've have come to play," just then Sirius peered in through the crack of the door checking if the coast was clear and the three boys slinked in when they saw that the matron was nowhere to be found.

They brought a bit a draft in with them, and it instantly made the werewolf's nose itch, he rubbed at it irritatedly.

"Nice of you… hih… h'kchew… to join us," Remus jabbed at them playfully, which told them that he was probably over the worst of it if he was cracking jokes already.

They grabbed a few more chairs and gathered around the sandy-haired boy's bed, telling anecdotes of their day. Apparently, Peter managed to literally set fire to his whole cauldron in Potions because he fell asleep on his worktable while he had porcupine quills boiling in the solution. Needless to say that Slughorn was not impressed.

As they joked around Lily began to feel an odd sense of belonging with the four boys that she had never experienced before.

"What's this?" Madam Pomfrey's bewildered voice thundered over them just after sundown. "Out now! Let the poor lad sleep! Shoo!"

The four of them left reluctantly, with promises of coming back the next day.

Ultimately Remus was immensely grateful that he had such wonderful friends, a smile of happiness tugging at his lips as he fell asleep that night.


	6. Chapter 6

There always comes a point in the recovery from an illness when you are not unwell enough anymore to spend your days in a haze, unable to do anything besides lying in bed and sleeping, but you are not well enough yet to get up and do much – not to mention forbidden to do so if you have an overbearing caretaker – and as a result you are utterly bored out of your mind.

That was precisely how Remus Lupin felt at the moment. So the creative mind that he was, he found a loophole. When James and Sirius visited him in the morning, he asked them to fetch him his drawing pad and pencils, and a few advanced charms books from the library, which Prongs delivered shortly after lunch.

Before you think that the werewolf was so dedicated to his schoolwork that he couldn't leave it alone even at the infirmary, you are wrong. No, all these supplies were necessary so that he could start brainstorming on what they would need exactly for the map project. They were calling it Mischief Management.

By 2 PM Moony had to realise that the whole process was going to be way more complicated than he initially thought (and he _had_ predicted that it wasn't going to be a simple feat). He rubbed his nose irritatedly as he bent over his sketchbook, chewing on the end of his pencil, trying to figure out how to best structure the infinitely complex system that was the Hogwarts castle with its many towers, changing staircases, hidden passageways, secret doors and tunnels. Just the Gryffindor Tower in itself was giving him a hard time with the two overlapping stairs to the girls' and boys' dorms. He wrote down two questions to be looked into on a parchment at his side.

 _How accurate does the map have to be for the Homonculus Charm to work properly?_

 _What about scale?_

Remus looked at the very rough prototype that only depicted the girls' dorms. It worked alright even with its slightly crooked lines, but if all occupants of a room were in there, it was already hard to make out the names that floated above their pacing dots. Not mention that it would take ages to find someone specific across the whole castle.

He added _name search function_ to the "to do" list with his other questions to be solved at one point or another. As he was writing, the feather of his quill slightly tickled his upper lip that sent his already sensitive nose into overdrive.

" _H'kxshm, hih'kshuu, heh…h'kchew_ " he cupped his face, dropping his quill at his right side.

"Bless you, dear," Madam Pomfrey chose exactly that moment to check on him and bring his next dose of potions, noticing the books and parchments scattered about him as she busied herself on his left. "Mr Lupin, you are supposed to rest, not study. You can do plenty of that once you're well enough… Especially for N.E.W.T. level charms," she noted based on the titles on the covers.

Remus noticed that fortunately during his spasms the sketchbook flipped to a page containing an aerial view drawing of the castle that he had been working on for years instead of his basic floor plans, with his pencil in his lap. None of the books were open at the moment, his list of concerns and the enchanted parchment were safely hidden by his right side, opposite from where the matron was standing, giving him the perfect alibi.

"You know me, I have to work twice as hard to prove myself. But in this case, you are correct, I couldn't concentrate and was just doodling," he lied flawlessly with a sheepish smile.

The matron peered over her shoulder from the bedside table where she was preparing the concoctions to see said drawing the boy was referring to.

"I'd hardly call that a doodle, dear. You've got a real knack for it," she smiled at her patient fondly. The healer, of course, would have rather wanted for Remus not to have to go through this every month, winding up in her care afterwards most of the time for at least a day, but she hadn't had a better-behaved charge in all of her time at Hogwarts, and always cherished those chances she could interact with him.

Remus blushed slightly at the compliment as he blew his nose, taking the phials the matron handed him. Madam Pomfrey fussed a little more over him, noting with a tut that his fever was still persistent, then left him alone.

The werewolf sagged in relief with a few coughs as he let out a breath, then quickly scribbled another item to that list.

 _Add security measures to hide map from unwelcome eyes_

Remus frowned in concentration, wondering if he should add anything else when the scrunching of his nose set him off again.

 _"_ _h'KXssh…hi'kshoum…h'Kshew_ _…_ _Hkkx'SCHUU!_ " Remus rubbed his face with a groan. That last one totally hurt his throat.

"Damn you, Moony!" James had walked into the Hospital Wing while the werewolf was occupied by his fit.

The prefect arched his brow with a look of sceptical amusement at his friend's utter lack of decorum. "Your concern for my well-being is heart-warming, Prongs," he quipped sarcastically.

"I'm unremorseful. That is what I meant... I'm saying what I intend. Agh!" Potter cried out in frustration, about to pull his hair out as he flopped down on the end of Lupin's bed.

There was definitely something fishy going on here. Remus studied the Quidditch Captain for a couple of moments trying to come up with some kind of an explanation for the odd behaviour of the Gryffindor.

"Is it opposite day or something?" Moony probed tentatively, biting down on his lips, barely containing the quivering from a smile tugging at his mouth.

"Lily totally didn't jinx me to say the exact words of my intent," James flopped on his back, burying his face in his palms, clearly peeved by his situation.

"So Lily did jinx you?" the prefect guessed, hiding his mouth in his palm in amusement, clutching his side trying to suppress a laugh that would surely send him into a coughing fit.

"No!" Prongs exclaimed enthusiastically while nodding fervently.

And with that last straw, Remus lost it. He couldn't contain his glee at his fellow prefect's shenanigans. These two were indeed made for each other, although he was confident that James had done something to warrant the redhead's wrath. That didn't make the retaliation any less hilarious.

"Hey!" the Quidditch Captain exclaimed indignantly at his fellow Marauder for having such a blast at his expense, but was also worried about him and tried to pat him on the pack to ease the coughing.

He lied there on his cot, laughing, coughing and gasping for breath uncontrollably, Madam Pomfrey rushing out to see what was wrong.

"Mr Potter! What is the meaning of this?" she bellowed furiously.

"I didn't come here for your help!" he pleaded sincerely.

"Mr Potter!" the healer gave him a condemning look for his cheek and disturbing her patient.

And that just sent the werewolf into further hysterics. The matron stood there befuddled over the situation.

"Lily…" Remus tried explaining between breaths, with little success. "Jinxed him to say…" he laughed out again. "The exact opposite… of what he means."

"Oh, my dear. Well, that explains it," Poppy shook her head, allowing herself a small smile.

"And Finite Incantatem works on it!" James despaired. "Can't you help me?"

Lupin peered up at that revelation, his breathing somewhat under control.

"You can ask questions almost normally," he observed but started chuckling again at the image of Prongs going around for however long only able to communicate by questions.

"Yes, Mr Potter, I'm afraid for jinxes like these only the exact counter-spell will lift it, but since I don't know what incantation Ms Evans had used, there is nothing I can do for you. You will either have to convince her to undo it or let it wear off," the healer patiently explained, glancing toward Remus now and again to make sure he didn't suffocate.

"How long?" the Quidditch Captain whined in an utterly unmanly way.

"That depends on the caster's level of magic that they put into the spell. Knowing Ms Evans's prowess in charms, I'd would say at least 24 hours."

"That is just deplorable!" he sighed exaggeratedly, and you could tell that he wanted to say something sarcastic, like 'that's just fantastic' or something, but the jinx acted against his intent and not just the actual words that were spoken. As a result, it sounded like he was mocking the situation, belittling his own earlier grievances.

Remus coughed again softly against his fist to hide the last snort of laughter but finally managed to get over his merriment. Madam Pomfrey looked at him disapprovingly. "I'm fine," he croaked, his throat rough again from all the laughing induced coughing.

"Anyway, off you go Mr Potter, let Mr Lupin rest," the matron shooed the boy out with finality.

When she came back, it seemed like she wanted to say something admonishing to Remus about his – to be frank – cruel mirth over his friend's suffering.

"You have to admit that was quite funny," the werewolf stated with an apologetic smile pre-emptively.

Poppy sighed with a shake of her head but let a small smile bloom on her face. "Yes. Yes, it was."

* * *

Before dinner time the woman of the hour made her appearance too, and you could see that whatever James had done still had her outraged.

"Remus, I'm going to kill him. Strangle him with my bare hands if I have to," Lily exhaled in frustration as she sat down at her fellow prefect's side.

"Although I don't condone the unnecessary use of violence, what has he done now?" there was no need to name James, it was self-evident that the redhead was talking about him.

"Okay, first, he asked me out on a date again..." she began her story with a huff.

"Then you jinxed him so that he wouldn't be able to because he would just say the opposite, since he always so presumptuously declares you two are going on a date, instead of actually asking you," Remus amended while nodding, which he quickly stopped too because his sinuses were still a bit achy and the movement just made it worse, not to mention his nose runny.

Now that Lily pointed it out the situation made so much sense, he really should have foreseen this.

"How do you know about that?" the redhead's eyes went wide with surprise. One would think that those in the infirmary wouldn't be on the grapevine.

"Oh, he was here," the werewolf chuckled before blowing his nose, but it sort of did the opposite of what he wanted, so now he had the urge to sneeze again. "Pleading Madam Pomfrey… _hih…_ to do something about it… _hi'ktxshew…_ Quite hilarious I must admit… my throat is still sore from the laughing and coughing that ensued at his expense. _h'kchuu… eh… he'KxSHEW…_ Sorry about that."

"Bless. And you say I'm the wicked one?!" Lily shook her head admonishingly. "I would have thought that you would take his side. Not… laugh at your friend like that."

"I'm not taking sides… _sniff…_ just amusing myself with the outcome. Besides, it's a daily occurrence that the Marauders are joking about each other's less than graceful moments. He didn't take it personally. I promise." Remus reassured her.

"Oh, believe me, Potter's sensibilities are the least of my worries… So anyway… ever since then he has been following me around _everywhere_ with puppy dog eyes and bombarding me with questions, phrasing it just right enough that the jinx couldn't negate it," she groaned then continued with her rant. "So that backfired royally, and he is driving me absolutely crazy."

"Why don't you just undo it so that he leaves you alone?" he suggested, grinning again because of the whole situation. This was better than the circus really.

"I have! Now we are back to the date proposals…" Lily repined in misery. "After last night I thought we could be a group of five, friends you know. It was so nice. I don't know what to do…"

"How about you go on a date with him? Just once, and then you can tell him that it isn't working out if that's how you feel by the end of it," her fellow prefect suggested, trying to phrase it as neutrally as he could. Although he had to admit that he was rooting for them, and not only because that would finally end James's endless tirades regarding the unattainable Ms Evans.

"It's the principle, Remus," the redhead sighed. "I can't be with someone like him. He is an arrogant bullying toerag. I know he had toned it down a notch for my sake this year. But I also know that just because I don't witness the act, it doesn't automatically mean that it's not happening." _Also, years of habit doesn't change overnight_ , but she didn't want to chew the sandy-haired boy out over something that wasn't his fault. She knew he tried everything he could to rein the other Marauders in a bit, but obviously he had no such power over them.

"This is still about last year, and Snape isn't it?" Remus frowned with concern. Obviously that was very traumatic for her to lose a friend in that way, to have her trust crushed like that.

"I don't want to get into that," Lily instantly closed up, crossing her arms, and chewing on her bottom lip nervously.

"Maybe you should… _eh…_ excuse me… _heh… h'kxshew… heh'ktxchoo…_ as I was saying, maybe you do need to talk about it with someone," the werewolf suggested, cringing a bit at his own hypocrisy. Even though he knew he could always turn to James or Sirius with anything, they rarely ever discussed things that was bothering him.

"There is nothing to talk about. Yes, Potter and Black have been absolute prats to Sev ever since day one. Do I think that is what made him call me a mudblood when I tried to help him last year? No. At least not directly," the redhead sighed heavily, not really wanting to rehash it but doing it anyway because whatever had made her bottle it up until now broke inside her. "Don't think that I didn't notice the crowd he has fallen in with, or that he had been sort of avoiding me, only wanting to meet in secret from around third year if not sooner. He made it perfectly clear last year where his loyalties truly lie, and I'm perfectly aware of the danger the Death Eaters pose, especially to me. But there is nothing Sev could have done on the train even if it rubbed James the wrong way that could remotely justify everything that he has been put through. In fact, the bullying could have pushed him farther over the edge. He was my friend. How would you feel about the person who made your friend's life miserable, even if that person is not your friend anymore?"

"Outraged, I presume. Protective," Remus guessed with a frown. In all honesty, he felt like this lecture wasn't exactly meant for him, but he _did_ ask.

"Anyway, I'm trying very hard to not be mad at Potter, but he is making it extremely difficult. We had a good time last night as a group. They can be hilarious when they are not torturing other students. That doesn't mean I want to suddenly snog him!" she cried out in horror.

"I hear you, believe me," her fellow prefect tried to calm her down.

Lily took a deep calming breath, wiping away a lone tear from the corner of her eye.

"What's done is done," the redhead stood up from her place and walked up to Remus to give him a hug, then held him at an arm's length assessing his health. "I should let you sleep, you still look a bit peaky... We have been assigned to patrol on Friday, do you think you will be up to it by then?"

"If Madam Pomfrey deems that I can leave then yes," the werewolf smirked, knowing full well that the only way he would be leaving the Hospital Wing was with a clean bill of health.

"Goodnight, Remus," she waved back as she left.

" 'Night, Lily."

As Lily walked through the double doors she didn't notice either the disillusioned Slytherin boy or James under the Cloak of Invisibility, both slyboots having heard everything but utterly unaware of each other's presence.

She did notice though that the Quidditch Captain once again kept his amicable distance, not pestering her more than strictly necessary and especially not with date proposals.

Snape's behaviour didn't change towards her, it was the same as ever since she denied his apology.

And she surely wouldn't have predicted now that in a year's time she would be looking at the new Head Boy in whole different perspective.


	7. Chapter 7

Wednesday rolled into Thursday, and the absence of Moony had started to get Sirius all antsy. Even though James was like a brother, a partner in crime to him, someone he had turned to in his darkest hour when he ran away from home last summer, Remus had a wholly different kind of special place in his heart. Call it canine camaraderie or whatever you will, but he felt fiercely protective of their friend with his furry little problem.

Not to mention worried whenever his transformation didn't go without a hitch. The fact that he was still ill enough to be kept under the supervision of the school matron didn't sit well with the dog animagus. All he wanted to do was to go down there and curl up at his legs to provide a sense of comfort no amount of blankets could provide, but he couldn't very well do that without risking some very awkward questions and detection. 'Who let the dog in?' wouldn't even begin to cover it.

Except, of course, the Marauders always had a few aces up their sleeves.

In the dead of night, equipped with James's cloak, Sirius manoeuvred his way through the castle's many hidden corridors to avoid running into Filch and that awful cat of his. Sometimes it took everything in the Gryffindor Beater not to give into his canine instincts, transforming into Padfoot and chasing Mrs Norris through the halls. Very tempting indeed, although the fact that they had a Transfiguration teacher with the ability to turn into a cat, and the prospect of her somehow finding out wasn't so encouraging. Minnie McGonagall was one frightening gal when angered.

A chill ran through his spine, and he hurried his steps to the infirmary on the drafty first-floor hallway.

Remus was already asleep, almost fully back to health, just a slight stuffiness noticeable through his breathing, the unhealthy flush gone from his cheeks. Sirius tiptoed up to his bed to avoid making too much noise.

"Moony…" he whispered in his ear, still hidden by the invisibility cloak.

"Hm… what?" the sandy-haired boy stirred in confusion, glancing around seeing no one. Weight shifted down on the side of his bed, and he immediately knew that one of the Marauders had come. If he had to guess blindly, he would have likely said it was Sirius. He was the clingiest of the bunch, at least where Remus was concerned, although the dog animagus would never admit that to anyone aloud.

"The dorm is so lonely without you, I can't sleep," Sirius carefully pulled the hood back enough that his face was visible only to Remus.

"Prongs and Wormtail aren't entertaining enough?" the werewolf smirked scooting a bit over to the side to give his friend a bit more space.

"No one can emulate your witty comebacks, Moony," Padfoot winked right before shifting to his dog form, curling up by the prefect's side, still hidden under the cloak, nudging his hand with his nuzzle.

Dogs were indeed a man's best friend. Even if they weren't strictly speaking human. Remus chuckled with a shake of his head, falling right back asleep.

Only to be rudely awakened by Sirius at 6 AM, in human form again and uncloaked, whining miserably.

"Moony, I'm dying!"

* * *

James was similarly worse for wear in their dorm room. Pounding headache, sore throat. _And I have scheduled a Quidditch practice for this afternoon…_ he groaned at the thought. Whatever bug Lily had contracted had slowly made its way to them too it seemed if nothing else through Remus. Not that he could be angry at either of them for it.

 _Lily… fuck… classes…_ he realised. Somehow he had to power through this. He instinctually just wanted to curl up and moan about his misery, but he knew that wouldn't impress the redhead too much.

"Prongs? Are you alright?" Peter inquired through the curtain. He at least seemed fine, but that wasn't too surprising. They had literally never seen the plump boy fall ill. Might have something to do with the properties of his animagus form. Rats rarely contracted anything. They might be carriers of some stuff but rarely got sick themselves.

"No, but just give me a sec," James cringed at the sound of his own voice and quickly got thinking. They should have some Pepper-up stashed somewhere that they swiped off of the infirmary for occasions when they couldn't afford to be under the weather. Like when assisting or hanging out with Remus around the full moon. Prongs quickly deemed not getting his jig up in front of Lily valid enough reason to use it.

He stiffly got out from his bed and rummaged through his trunk. _Eureka!_ Just what he was looking for. He downed the potion in one gulp, cringing first at the taste, then the sensation of steam erupting for his ears. He coughed a bit as he tried dispersing the mist around his head with a wave of his hand.

When he finally drew his curtains back, he noticed that Sirius was nowhere to be seen.

 _Oh, right._ The memory of the oldest Marauder borrowing his cloak around midnight started to dawn on him through his foggy mind.

"That bad, huh?" Wormtail assessed him and the steam that was still oozing from his ear canals.

"Don't even ask," Potter croaked as he made his way towards the bathroom to get ready for classes.

* * *

Sitting in Transfiguration – their first class of the day – James still hadn't seen Sirius anywhere, he didn't show up for breakfast either. He deduced that his Beater was probably in the same condition and just stayed in the Hospital Wing, which is where he guessed the boy had gone during the night before. He always had a soft spot for Moony and probably wanted to keep him company.

That was probably the best place for Padfoot to be at right now anyway, as James started to realise that Pepper-up did absolutely nothing for him. He wondered briefly if whatever Lily had was a resistant strain and that was the reason she had to spend almost three days in the infirmary or because she had progressed too far in the illness for it to work by the time she got there. The former seemed more likely now.

Said redhead kept stealing frowning glances at him which made him immediately sit up straighter, and he tried to concentrate on whatever Minnie was explaining about human transfiguration. This was his best subject so he wasn't all that worried that he couldn't really pay attention. With their extensive research in preparation for their animagus transformations, there wasn't really a topic in Transfiguration Hogwarts was going to teach them before N.E.W.T.s that he hadn't seen yet.

The rest of the day was a whole different question though. _Maybe I should just cancel practice…_ he rubbed his eyes tiredly. He felt shivery and tried really hard to keep himself from shuddering when the persistent itch that had been bothering him since breakfast came back with a vengeance. James willed himself not to sneeze, especially not in front of Lily, whose scrutinising stare he still felt on himself from time to time.

The practical portion of the lesson came, and they had to transfigure their hair to a different colour. Just as Potter tried to say the incantation necessary he lost all control over his breath, which hitched in response.

" _Heptshoo…"_ he sneezed, and unfortunately, his magic went haywire too, backfiring, leaving his face in a singed mess.

"Mr Potter, what in the world?" McGonagall looked incredulously at the Marauder who never as much as made a blunder in her class before. A second later, when he started coughing, it all became clear to her. "Mr Potter, you better get down to Madam Pomfrey before you infect my whole class. Ms Evans, be so kind and escort him there."

Lily made a face, easily interpretable as "why me?" but didn't object. Of course, she knew why her, she had already gone through this illness so couldn't very well catch it from him again. Not to mention she was a prefect so it was sort of her duty to do it. That didn't make the ordeal less disagreeable.

Once outside the classroom, she turned on him.

"Why didn't you just go straight to the Hospital Wing in the morning, Potter?" Lily rumbled accusatorially.

"Not so loud, please, Evans," he paused with a wince, massaging his temples, but managed to keep his voice whining free. Small victories.

The prefect softened a bit, her empathy stronger than her irritation with the boy. She reached up, placing the back of her hand against his forehead, which was burning up. James moaned slightly as he leaned into her touch.

"Geez, Potter, you don't do anything halfway, do you?" she shook her head disapprovingly.

"The pot and the kettle, Evans, pot and the kettle," James smirked at her with a sniff then turned away from her, cupping his nose as a sneeze teased him. " _Ha'ksh… Haptshoo_ "

"Here," Lily rummaged through her bag handing him a pack of tissues.

"Thanks," the Quidditch Captain took them gratefully, giving his nose a good blow.

"Come, before they start wondering where I have disappeared to," the redhead steered him towards the staircase to go up a floor to the infirmary.

* * *

The melodramatic mess that was Sirius Black when he so much as had the sniffles was not a sight anyone could be prepared for. It was evident to the green-eyed witch that Madam Pomfrey was nearly at her rope's end with the dark-haired boy. Remus, of course, said nothing but was very much enjoying himself over his friend's tizzy at a mere head cold.

"Evans, save me! Madam Pomfrey is being a meanie!" the dog animagus whined when he spotted them at the door, reaching out to her like a drowning man for a lifeboat.

"Mr Potter, please tell me, you are not ill as well. I'm not sure I can handle the both of you simultaneously in my ward," Poppy's weaning patience was seeping through her words as she rubbed her temple.

"I'll behave, I promise," Potter hoarsely replied with a sheepish smile, coughing into his fist, which made Lily raise a brow. She got a distinct impression that this was not how the bespectacled sixth year normally acted when sick.

"Anyway, take the cot on Mr Lupin's other side, I don't need you and Mr Black riling up each other," the healer huffed as she strode away towards her cabinets for another batch of potions.

The redhead kept glancing questioningly between the two more volatile members of the Marauders as she made her way to Remus.

"Is he for real?" she whispered to him pointing to Sirius behind her back.

"You are not even seeing half of it," Lupin chuckled at her conspiratorially, glancing to Prongs on his other side.

"Why am I not surprised?" Lily sighed. It would have been too good to be true for Potter to actually be able to act maturely through an illness. Though if it wasn't his natural behaviour pattern, then his performance this morning – in Transfiguration and otherwise – was genuinely astounding, she had to admit. She was a little bit impressed.

"Ms Evans, aren't you needed back in class?" the matron rejoined them, delivering the concoctions for Potter.

"Yes, sorry, Madam Pomfrey," the redhead nodded, thankful for the reminder. "I'll be back in the afternoon, Remus," she added affectionately to her fellow prefect, rubbing his shoulder comfortingly because she knew that he was in for a long day with these two morons on either side of him. Or not, maybe this was just all too amusing to him.

"Hey, what about me?" James's disappointment slipped out unbidden as she walked towards the exit, then he clasped a hand to his mouth quickly, wishing to be able to take it back.

"Don't push your luck, Potter," Lily glared at him over her shoulder as she left the room.

"Smooth, Prongs, smooth…" Sirius smirked through a series of coughs. Only to be hit with a silencing charm by James, who was sulking on his bed.

* * *

Lily decided that she needed reinforcements if she was going to go down to the Hospital Wing to visit Remus with the other two Marauders out of commission too, so at lunch, she told Marlene about the state her would be boyfriend… – or lover… or whatever… (she wasn't quite sure what they were aiming for) – was in.

With quick thinking the blonde remembered that with two players out of seven (and not to mention their captain) out of the game, there really wasn't any point to a practice so before their afternoon classes she quickly ran up to the common room to hang a notice of cancellation that James surely had forgotten with McGonagall's quick eviction of him from her class.

As a result, after their last class, both girls were making their way towards the Hospital Wing. Previously the redhead magically copied all her notes, plus Marlene's Monday ones for Remus because he was probably getting out tonight or tomorrow morning the latest, and he surely would want to catch up on his lost time.

"Ah… there's my girl…" Sirius cooed a bit too loudly the moment he saw the blonde, which made her blush and giggle as she went up to him.

"I brought you class notes," Lily kept her voice down as she handed the parchments to Lupin because it seemed Potter was sleeping.

"Thanks, you are the best," the werewolf grinned and put them in his bag that was sitting on the bedside table. He was mostly up and about now, no longer lying but instead just sitting on his bed with his robes thrown over his pyjamas.

"You seem better," the redhead commented, being genuinely pleased with the news of his recovery.

"Yeah, I am, although Madam Pomfrey insists on me staying the night," he rolled his eyes.

"Can you blame her? Tuesday afternoon you barely looked better than a ghost. I can only imagine what it must have been after… you know… in the morning," Evans looked at him remorsefully again. That was a terrifying experience, not something she wished ever to be repeated.

"I know," he nodded grimly, although he couldn't really recall much of that feverish blur.

"I…" Lily began only to be cut off by the loud and obnoxious sneeze of Black behind her.

" _HATCHOOO!_ " he groaned painfully afterwards. The redhead could only imagine how much that hurt. "No… don't come near me, Marls, I don't want you catching this awful malady," Sirius protested theatrically with the back of his right hand against his forehead when Marlene tried to offer him some tissues, which only made her giggle even louder.

"Don't worry I was plenty exposed to it from Lily. If I was going to get it, I would have by now," the blonde tried to reassure him although she did find his showy behaviour amusing.

"Quit being so melodramatic, Sirius. The first potion you got from Madam Pomfrey prevents the illness from being contagious," the redhead snapped. If this is what the healer had to deal with for the last eight hours, then she was an absolute angel.

"Then why did…?" before he could finish the question Lily quickly cast a nonverbal silencing charm on him, but she could see him mouth the end of the question 'I catch it from Moony?'. Fortunately, he was facing away from Marlene, and she couldn't see it, but even if she did, the prefect hoped that she couldn't read from lips.

"Sorry, what was that Black? I couldn't quite hear you," the green-eyed witch glared at him pointedly, hoping very much that he realised the mistake he almost made.

That particular potion was made with monkshood. How these morons were able to keep Remus's secret for so long was beyond Lily. Sirius's eyes went wide a second later, and he quickly shut his mouth that was still yapping wordless protests about the treatment.

"Ah, golden silence. Keep it that way. There are some people here who are trying to heal," she smiled at him over-sweetly and with another flick of her wand removed the spell. Her blonde friend thankfully didn't question the exchange, probably assumed that Lily flipped out because Black was about to chew her out for not coming to the infirmary sooner and infecting them all.

"Thanks," Remus mouthed at her, quickly calming his expression from his previously almost panicked one that again was blissfully hidden from Marlene by Lily's form.

" _ha'pshew…_ " James stirred from his sleep, turning on his back, blearily looking around to see what was going on.

"Sorry about the ruckus," Lily frowned a bit apologetically. They were making way too much noise for the Hospital Wing. "Go back to sleep."

Now that she thought about it, she had never seen him without his glasses before. It was oddly endearing, his features were much more boyish and less the arrogant, entitled, rich git that he usually looked like. Although the fact that instead of his usual cheeky smirk his face was in a grimace of mild discomfort could have helped with that too.

"It's fine, all I've been doing is sleep," he mumbled as he drew his blanket closer around himself. He looked so much worse for wear than Sirius.

"Should I get Madam Pomfrey for you?" the redhead asked with a hint of worry.

"No, it's fine," James shrugged and just closed his eyes trying to rest.

Lily looked at Remus questioningly.

"Don't ask me. He hadn't so much as made a whining peep since morning. Madam Pomfrey was almost in a panic that there was actually something really wrong with him if he was so subdued, but his fever is stable around 38 degrees," the werewolf chuckled, finding the whole thing really humorous.

"Sick, not deaf here," Potter grumbled irritatedly, glaring at them through one opened eye.

The redhead couldn't help but giggle a bit, his vexation just way too comical, and she didn't notice, but the fact that he was able to make Lily laugh, lifted his spirits despite his misery.

"I'm sorry, we will be quiet now," the prefect whispered then bid a quiet goodbye to Remus and dragged Marlene out of the room who waved at Sirius longingly.

The dreamy expression on James's face as they left was priceless.

"She cares…" Prongs trailed off with a longing sigh.

"Oh, shut up!" Sirius grunted and repaid James's earlier silencing charm with one of his own.

* * *

By Saturday everyone was fit as a fiddle, so there was nothing in the way of a great outing to Hogsmeade.

Sirius, of course, was on a date with Marlene. Alice was meeting Frank, who had graduated last year, in the village, so that left Lily with no one to go with.

Before James could get any ideas and ask her out again, she grabbed Remus and declared that as prefects they better keep an eye on the younger ones.

Prongs was glaring daggers at Moony who tried desperately to relate to him that this hadn't been his idea as he glanced back over his shoulder at James, who was still standing by the castle doors, while Lily dragged him towards the carriages.

"I guess it's just us," Peter sighed as he watched the retreating form of the other two Marauders with their female companions. "Want to go to Zonko's to stock up on some stuff?"

"Great idea, Wormtail, great idea," James's eyes glinted dangerously with mischief. There were some pranks in order to put everyone in their place within the group.

And then the rain started to pour.


End file.
